What?

I found out a big secret tonight

You wanna know what it is? It’s a whopper! It’s about how we all feel when we get older. Apparently. I don’t have any sources.  Well, I do and I don’t.

Anyway, here's thing I found out. It’s important. I think we can all benefit from it. I am appealing particularly to my own age group but to be honest, anyone can get something from it. Particularly the next generation

Wanna know what it is?

I know why no one listens to old people.

“Old” encompasses everyone that is older than you...be it two days, two years or two feckin’ decades.

Whatever.

We ignore them! We want to, because they never say anything interesting. I mean our peers are just boring retards. They just repeat all their stories all the time. They over tell the same shit again and again.  They might tell us stuff we might learn from

Doesn’t matter. It’s stupid. Annoying. Or just plain boring.  In fact we just get plain annoyed or tired of it. We fob them off with “yeah, yeah” answers. We stare blankly. Doesn’t matter. So long as they finish what they are saying... right?

NO!

They come back... they say it again! Even our older brothers and sisters seem to tell us the same stories again and again. When we meet up after a long time we tell the same shit over and over again. Old friends? Great! We can relate to that, right? Yes! Then it gets boring, uninteresting... then we don’t see them for months. We wish it were so long with our families too. We know, we can predict what way the conversation will go. “Remember so-and-so did this-and-that?” “Yeah yeah, was great, wasn’t it?” Blah blah blah

There seems to be a backlog of what we all know already. It’s amazing. Everyone has their own take on it. And every meeting we have will be the same old shit again and again. Why doesn't it change?? Who knows.

But...

I know why! I know why conversations are mundane and repetitive!

We never ever listen. Ever.

Yeah, sure we all know what went down on New Year’s Eve 1999. Sure we all know what so-and-so did the night of their 25^th. We were all there! In fact, we all know our Da’s stale worn out stories. They are so boring that we could be floating 76 days in the Pacific Ocean on a raft and find it more interesting. But not once do we acknowledge the other person’s take on that event. We never give it time, because we are too busy working on our own version while they are telling us, in our own head. Storytelling, friendships and get-togethers always become a wrestling match of “I want to tell my version vs You want to tell your version” and you THINK you’re listening, but you’re not! You just want to be heard! And you delay the next time you meet each friend because you think know exactly what they are gonna say! The occasional few words seem repetitive but If you actually listened you might get something new from it! Isn’t that something? Imagine not being browned off by the next family get-together because you know that you listened to every single detail there was on each potential story? Sure it’s hard graft, but so is worrying or trying to avoid certain people because you know what they’ll come out with! And they do, because you never really paid attention before and always seem surprised, even half heartedly about what they are going to say. The reason your friends and family are boring is because of you! Wow! Relax, take a breath and accept it.

Friends just become a relay of same old same old events because we know no-one is really being listened to. Well OK, maybe sometimes we hear some of it, but why are we surprised by new details occasionally? Because we listened for once instead of just forcing shitty repetitive detail we want paid attention to once. And we want to avoid, like the plague, people who just keep giving us the same old clap-trap again and again, because we kind of listen to the story but never acknowledge the receipt of it with the odd question or clarification that we were paying attention. We seem horribly uninterested in those who find us interesting.

 Tragic.

Yep. We avoid people and social situations because we are ignorant of them. Sure, we can tell ourselves we are the most outwardly social people we know, but all of us... All... are fairly ignorant. We all want everyone to hear our version. And we’re already planning our next story in our heads. Ever just listen to someone? Mad experience altogether. They just keep talking. But they eventually run out of steam. It’s a strange strange thing. They give up. They go quiet. And they give us the time to realise... “Fuck... is it my turn? Now I get to fill in the blanks? It’s so fucking quiet!”

Imagine getting all the way to your old age with no-one listening to you? Imagine having to expel your stories until the next big occasion because nobody really cares? Or saying the same things over and over cuz no one really listened? Old people aren't crazy... they are just ignored. You will be too unless you  stop planning your next big story or actually listen for a change. I have to do it too. Nobody is devoid of this responsibility

Scary isn’t it?

This could be a boring essay, but I am only writing it because no one wants to hear my "same old shit" and I am alone, bored off my skull. 

Well, possibly anyway.

That, and I've nothing better to do :P

Here: This is nice