SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | "Growing old is not for the faint of heart," a well-known local doctor likes to advise, and so it's considerate of us to give seniors in our midst a lot of latitude. But I have a difficulty here I cannot hide.

Seniors, by definition, have the life experience that should make them the respected elders of our community. They've been around the block and then some, and almost every one of them has been a graduate of life's school of hard knocks.

They've raised families (including teenagers), started and ran businesses in good times and bad, and kept marriages together (or struggled to do so).

They've traveled, volunteered, worked with all types of people; they've been honoured, betrayed, and been rewarded with loyalties and love. They've struggled, achieved goals, and have hit insurmountable obstacles.

Rare is the senior who doesn't carry the lessons learned from a great success, and seniors give a lot of thought to improving the world around them. They've fought for what's right, occasionally won, and they've bitten their tongues far too many times for the sake of peace in the family, calm on the job, and for their own sanity.

But yet, when a few seniors get together, especially if there are some younger folk in the crowd, the conversations of most of these well-traveled and world-weary seniors is often bland, unthoughtful, -- and utterly trivial.

Listen carefully, for example, at the next dinner party's conversation. How much of it is repeating the news of the day, which everyone has already heard. Conversation will detail the step-by-step causes of the latest airliner or bus disaster. Conversation will complain about the scams of bankers, the avarice of public sector unions, and the self-centeredness of movie stars, musicians, and national politicians.

Let's ignore the complaints about the weather, back pains, the length of winter, the heat of summer, rising prices, the insolence of youths, and humanity's inability to escape not only noise, pollution, and advertising, but also the intrusion of confusing electronic gadgetry into every part of our lives.

Of course we don't expect dinner party conversation to stay with sober and abstract topics, but don't we expect a little bit, just a flash, of those life experiences to shine through in their conversation -- in their advice to others, and in their expectations of others, and of the life ahead?

Why give us topics already covered on the morning's CBC radio? Why do we get the silliest views on the current prime minister or rumours about products from China, or the war in Afghanistan, rumours no one can verifiy?

Granted everyone likes to talk and loves a soapbox, but why do seniors keep their real lessons of life a secret? Are they modest? Are their memories fading? We want some senior wisdom!

Oops, I've given away my own age. Here I've spent 500 words, not imparting any of life's grand lessons, but complaining.

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Copyright © 2009 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/02.09