"You're Still Young": The Trump Card That Isn't Always True

        Though it we may share a hemisphere, South America and North America may as well be different worlds. If Canada is the ill fitting hat that the United States often forget it has on, then South America is our penis. One thing that always bothered me about our penis, which encompasses countries like Mexico, Brazil, and Columbia, is the stories of these crazy rats I always hear about. Apparently these things are almost the size of dogs, or if there was a dog that was the size of two normal dogs, it would be that... and like Beethoven dogs too, not like Paris Hilton-this-one-goes-with-my-purse dogs. Okay, I may be exaggerating. New York is probably the only area on U.S. soil with rats that even come close to rivaling these genetically modified dog-rat hybrid beats that could not have been made for any purpose short of Pokemon-style arena battles. South America is cray... Well, mostly cray.

     If you were to take a seven-year-old from Mexico and a seven-year-old from The States, and, hell, let's take a seven-year-old from China and two from South Africa... If you took these kids, with their boogers and their childish energy and their disparate cultures, you could almost guarantee that each had at least one thing in common: They think old people are smart.

    Now, chances are I have some sort of bias that I'm not fully aware of, being a young person myself, but it drives me crazy when a person uses age as rank. In the Dhammapada, the Buddha spoke about the correlation between age and wisdom. He said that age does not always make men wise because someone may have grown through ignorant means. While this is usually true in extreme circumstances, and experience usually comes just by living, no man can learn everything the world has to offer, the most challenging of these, for some reason, being tolerance.

   Now before I go any farther, I'd like to admit that I'm intolerant about a lot of things: James Franco as Allen Ginsberg, Starbucks drink sizes, James Franco just as an actor who actually somehow works. The list is nearly endless. I do know one older gentleman, however, who is intolerant to the point that, if he really wished, he could easily play the role of Carl Fredricksen in the live-action rendition of the film Up! He's not a bad guy, however. He's mostly socially progressive, so it's usually more ridiculous things than anything likely to offend or upset anyone. 

    Still, I wonder where the animosity comes from. Is it some kind of node that grows in one's brain after years of exposure to pessimistic viewpoints? I doubt that's it, as I already see friends my age taking on some "grumpy old guy" traits while I sit in the corner with my rainbow bandana on bobbing my head back and forth to "Take on Me" by 80's pop band A-Ha. 

People really should do studies on this crap. It may even lead to a cure for douchebaggery.

Peace out my little gustas!

- Fuju