The Elderly.

The eldery.
This is the group of people whom I feel we as teenagers fail to appreciate or have compassion for.
Picture this:
An ruggly-dressed old man with only one side of a slipper digging the filthy rubbish bin for aluminium cans on a rainy Sunday evening.
Upon finding one,
he cleans and crushes it before putting it into a big plastic bag filled many more of such cans.
Then one can slips out of the bag and falls into a puddle of mud.
Instead of leaving it,
he runs to it,
squats down and cleans it like it was gold he was scrambling for.
This incident changed my total persepective and made me realise that there's more that I can do for them other than offering money to them.

Honestly,
I dread going out for dinner with my family to coffeeshops or hawker centers.
Not because of the environment,
but because whenever we're eating happily as one family,
I always notice old people walking around attempting to sell the consumers there tissue paper.
The way some people shun them really breaks my heart.

While we're down there eating good food,
they're scrapping to sell tissue paper,
hoping to be able to eat just a packet of chicken rice a day.

As a kid,
I always respected the elderly.
I'm not being boastful,
but I always feel that if you want someone to treat you the way you want to be treated,
you should always treat them the way they want to be treated.
We're all going to grow old anyway.
What if when you're old,
you're the one selling the tissue paper and the younger generation shunning you.

Those elderly you see selling tissue paper either do not have children,
or they've abandoned them.
Have a heart.
1 aluminium can means the world to them.
$1 means a meal to them.
How we as teenagers fail to see their pain.

Do your part today for society.
I've decided to collect aluminum cans at home and pass them to those elderly in the coffeeshops.
It's not much,
but I feel the need to do it.
What about you?


Peace and love,
Lewis