Generations

I am a people watcher. I love to quietly observe human interactions. When my kids were young I used to take them to major league ball games. I never even looked at the playing field. I was too busy focusing on the people sitting around me. I was trying to figure out the dynamics of their relationships to each other. Were they family or friends or co workers. Was the young couple on a first date? What were they eating. And so on. Last night I was in a Chinese take out waiting for my order to be prepared. Working behind the counter was a boy about 11 years old. He must have been the owners son. A bright kid. Anyway.... in walked an elderly man of at least 75 years old. When the boy saw him, his face lit up. "I tried the puzzle you taught me and it worked" said the boy. The old man looked thrilled and said "I have another one for you". The man took a pencil and paper out of his pocket and walked behind the counter to stand next to the boy. He wrote out some sort of mathematical problem. In my mind I was thinking that this man must have been a Math teacher before he retired. The two of them discussed the math problem and the young boy asked many questions. After a few minutes the man's order was ready. He said to the boy, "work on the solution and I will see you next week". For some reason watching this exchange made me smile. Are we really ever too old to teach, or too young to learn?