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A
gentleman of my generation and I waited for an
elevator at the basement of one of the commercial
centres in town for about three minutes. As the
doors opened, we followed each other inside and
proceeded to press our respective buttons. We stood
next to each other. We could see all our movements
in the two floor-to-ceiling mirrors that were on
either end of the elevator.
We
were both headed to the topmost parts of the
building. We would be standing next to each other
for the majority of our ride. Not a word was spoken
between us.
A
couple of floors up, the elevator stopped on the
mezzanine of the building to pick up two gentlemen
who were both of the generation preceding ours. When
the elevator doors opened to reveal them waiting
there, they looked as though they were immersed in
some important intimate conversation. When they
walked into the elevator, they both said hello to
the two of us; we, of course, said hello back.
My
immediate reaction to the whole thing was cringing
humiliation.
Why had the other guy standing next to me and I not
done that? What was so hard about giving greetings
and wishing others well?
As
I stood in the back of the elevator waiting for the
questionable machine to reach my destination, I was
mortified at the vastness of the separation between
two generations that are so close in so many other
ways. The only thing that made the young man
standing next to me different from the gentlemen
that entered the elevator was a few specks of grey
hair. Neither their manner of dress nor the manner
in which they carried themselves was any different.
They spoke the same language, gave the same
responses to the same greetings and appeared to be
generally functioning in the same manner.
Yet, the reality of the whole thing was very, very
different. We, of the younger generation, have lost
the desire that makes us friendly neighbours and
considerate space sharers.
I
will be the first to point out and admit to the
flaws of our very lost and confused generation. The
identity crises and sometimes insurmountable social
and political obstacles that we have faced as a
group have been crippling if not altogether
paralysing. It has resulted in the passive,
ill-informed and more often than not obnoxious
aspects of society that are seen everywhere now.
As
members of the future of this nation and as
potential proactive members of our own society, we
have been slithering around trying to find our
footing and our voices. We are longing to make what
we feel to be a difference.
In
the meantime, while all this is happening, we are
also losing the very essence of what can guide us
down the right path and is the very foundation of
our existence: our Ethiopianess.
My
experience in the elevator was a manifestation of
exactly this.
We, of the younger generation, had no words to share
with each other; we did not bother to acknowledge
each other's existence; and we certainly did not
take time to greet each other and wish each other
well in our day's endeavours. Those of a generation
with less of an identity crises, though, did all of
those things.
They acknowledged the presence of others, they
greeted them with wishes of peace, and they
proceeded to switch their conversation to a more
general subject that was more appropriate for public
consumption. It was a social courtesy that has
become completely extinct with the coming of age of
those of us who are members of "Generation Unknown."
I
always complain about the loss of our traditions and
our over consumption of and over assimilation with
all aspects of Western culture. Granted modernity
gives rise to a certain level of change. I have
always felt that we, as a people, have never
actually become modern, in spite of wearing, with
the most pride and plair, all its accoutrements.
What that has created is an entire span of people
that have no idea where their loyalties lie, where
their roots are based, and where they want this
nation and its people to go.
I
appreciate that this is not a problem that can be
addressed so easily. But, I also understand that it
could very well begin to find change. if only we
were to do the simple things like say hello to those
whom we pass, consider others and pay respect to our
elders and those who have earned it through their
work.
These things are not only morally right. They are
the fundamental manner in which Ethiopians have
expressed the very nature of their culture, religion
and nation. I know now to always wish those I
encounter well and give out greetings of peace
wherever I go. It may change the world, it may not,
but I know for sure it is worth a shot. |
