Ignore Me At Your Own Peril

My son Julian had asked me what a prequel is. So I explained "a prequel is something, like a movie, that you make to tell a story prior to the main story". In fact, prequel should be explained as 'planning go horribly wrong'. If you have planned out properly, then there should be no prequel. There is the part 1, part 2, part 3 etc. Unfortunately (or accidentally) you decided that Part 2 should be told first. Then and most probably due to the success of part 2, you feel the need to tell Part 1, so you go back to make the part 1 which is now called the 'prequel'.

This post is a prequel to the last post "I Told You So".

The Chinese people have a saying for the younger folks, 'ignore the old people's advice at your own peril'. (不听老人言,吃亏在眼前。) This saying is delivered, usually, immediately after the main advice is rejected. It is uttered as a last ditch effort to ensure that an advice is followed. When this fails, then you wait to deliver the 'I told you so' at a later time.

'Ignore the old people's advice' really means, in a nutshell, ignoring the wisdom that comes with experience. Young people rarely take old people's words seriously. They consider their old folks 'troublesome', 'conservative', 'outdated', etc. However, these same young people today will behave, when they themselves become old, exactly the same way as their old folks do now, and they will be delivering the same message of 'ignore me at your own peril' to their younger folks. I did say the philosophies of humanity have not really changed over thousands of years. So what was valid a thousand year ago, philosophically, is equally valid today.

Young people could do well to heed some of the advice of their old folks. Such advice are given with a backing, and that is the old folks' own experience.

Yes, ignore me at your own peril.