Learning From Erudite Cousins.

Both the cousins who feature in this post read my posts regularly and comment and so, it is dedicated to them.

I recently mentioned in my post “Learning” that “old dogs can’t learn new tricks.” To this, my cousin Shankar commented:

“Ramana, the Old adage is :

You Can’t “Teach” An Old Dog New Tricks –
Merriam-Websterwww.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › you can’t tea…

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks definition is –
—used to say that a person who is old or is used to doing things in a certain way cannot learn or does not …”

I corrected my post and thanked him.

Yesterday, I was on a phone call with another cousin Papa and in some context mentioned in Tamil that in my old age I am reverting to old traditions. To which he promptly responded with the very apt adage in Tamil that translates to English as “Doing Surya Namaskar after going blind.”

I am in regular touch with many of my cousins thanks to modern telephony and social media and enjoy talking to them. The talks and social media exchanges often revolve around nostalgia and since we are all, over the proverbial three score and ten, nostalgia plays a very important part in our staying sane. The word sane however is to be used with caution as some of us including my siblings are border line cases.

There is nothing new, except what has been forgotten.

The title of this post is a quote that has been ascribed to Marie Antoinette,  a remarkable personality by all accounts. This quote has long been a favourite of mine when occasions arise when I can quote it.

Another similar adage is “History repeats itself”.

Let me give the latest instance when I used it.

I received an SOS from a young lad that his father, a friend of mine, is interfering in the bringing up of the former’s child. I called my friend to remonstrate and reminded him as to how he felt when his parents interfered in the bringing up of the same child that he was trying to influence now. And, I could not resist the temptation to use this quote for effect! And to add some spice to the discussion I also said that there is nothing called the generation gap and that there was only a memory gap.

This topic was chosen by me for the weekly Friday 2 on 1 blog post where Shackman and I post on the same subject. Please see what Shackman has to say too.