Forgetfulness or stumbles

13/09/2025 Nilson Lattari

We often forget what we did in the past, in order to look more modern and linked to today’s world. We often forget what we did personally and what others did too. But it’s impossible to start a story without a base to support it, and people’s stories are important.
Our family’s or old friends, who are in photos or in stories that people tell us, are like creeks that never existed or trees that were never planted, because they vanished in the storms of time.
In communities around the world that have kept their stories in people’s memories, older people are questioned when new circumstances intrigue the younger ones. Young people assume that those with life experience know the answers. But in fact, it’s not always necessary to have lived through certain events to be able to find solutions. Hard decisions have always existed; this is important to remember. The most important thing is not to have ready answers, but to be brave enough to challenge the unknown and events we have never seen before.
In reality, when you forget past experiences recorded in books and in people’s memories, it’s like scorning knowledge.
Usually, people dismiss what has occurred before. They see such events as old-fashioned and useless. We are nothing more than the world we inherited. We are the consequences of the mistakes and successes of our predecessors. Our parents didn’t hand us everything. They learned in their own times and gained lessons about survival in a world that belonged to them. Nobody today can know how our parents would behave in response to the news of our time. Likewise, we cannot truly know how we will survive; only time will tell.
Still, something in our parents’ memories may give us direction, without the need for advice or guidance. We must understand how they faced their own challenges, because the future is totally unknown to us, and at the same time, both frightening.
We don’t have to copy our parents’ behaviour. We must aim to be better than them, mainly our parents. As children, when we were afraid, we called for our father or mother, and they always had a solution for our problems. When we grow up, we become the ones others will call us for advice. Our stumbles may be greater or smaller than we imagine, depending on whether we think about how our parents would have acted for us or for themselves.
When we ignore history, we reject our future. Everything we read or see about what others have done is important for our own life experience.
The important thing is that the clash of generations doesn’t turn into a battle. If this clash happens, it will already be a lost battle. We are connected through generations. When we look at the past and see how much we have grown in some eras yet regressed in others, it’s a sign of forgetfulness or of stumbles that walk alongside us.
Sometimes, it’s very clear how old habits and thoughts return. For some people, it’s easier to deny the past when old ideas no longer suit their desires. For others, seeking the new is learning from old ideas. Some forget them and stumble; others do not.