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Earlier this year, I had picked up part-time jobs as a music teacher in about three schools; Springflower was one of them. My work in Springflower is not about the money that is being paid; it is about the experience; I want to understand what it really feels like to be a teacher. Do not be distracted though; this post is not about Springflower, or about me being a teacher, or about how the elderly man spoke to me particularly. It is about respect, and how people strip themselves of it in their quest to show how powerful or old they are.
I was not in school as early as I should have today, but at the same time, I was not supposed to be in school at all for the day. My intention was just to come, pass information to the student and leave, only to hear this man tell me how he behaved when he was my age without making any attempts to understand why I would behave the way I did. As he was speaking, I respectfully cut him short by telling him that the day was supposed to be my day off. It caused him to realise that he was making no point, and I guess it kind of tampered with his esteem too. That notwithstanding, he would have avoided all of that if he had done things rightly.
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Respect is indeed reciprocal. What it entails is that we respect whoever it is that we come across regardless of age difference or position. That man failed to understand that, and it cost him, or maybe not. In this part of the world, it is no joke that an elder can scold you for not greeting him. You don't for any reason call elders by their name; that is the standard, and that is a good standard. As time changes, and the new generation tends to be less traditional, some elders have learnt to follow the trend of time; but for others, everyone younger than them are their subordinates, and they must treat them like one. Based on this, they also feel the need to speak to them as they please; I guess that was what transpired today.
As an individual, I feel life should be simple; I feel that we do not need to seek respect to get it. I also feel that we do not need to show power to be powerful, and that we are what we are, regardless of how much we show it. If we are able to understand this, then we would also understand that no one deserves to be spoken to in a manner that is degrading or undeserving. In all, we understand how simple life is. If one must be respectful, they must not be in the attitude of disrespecting others. Yet, we must not disrespect others on the basis that they are disrespectful to us. We must learn to make respect an attitude; even when we condemn disrespectfulness, we must learn to do it with respect.