A man is teaching values to his kid, she is learning wonderfully and accepting what her father was teaching. But teaching has reached to point of contention when the father says that person should respect their elders and should obey them. To this daughter simply asks why. Fathers explain that elders have lived more and have a much better experience of life. Daughter gets curious listening to this but refrains herself from asking further. Father senses the discomfort and asks what problem she has with the statement. She replies that he says that people should respect elders, while he means people should respect others with more experience. “But doesn’t experience comes with age?” asks the father.
Daughter says “I have heard you saying that failure brings experience.” Father says “I may have said it, but it means that failure gives a chance to introspect and find the reason for failing, and only this adds to a person’s experience.” Girl’s curiosity rises high and she puts up another question. She asks that then whose experience is higher the person having many failures or the person who has succeeded in his first event and lived through that success. Father can not even guess, where this conversation is going, but he is amazed by the logical questions being asked by his small daughter.
Father says “If the person having more failures have introspected his failures, he is the one having more experience.” Daughter is quick to react “But you didn’t ask the age of those two people.” The man now understands where she wants to take this, but he remains really speechless for her question. He thinks and replies “generally it is the age which brings opportunities, it doesn’t matter you fail or succeed in them.”
Daughter has now many more questions in her mind, now she does not even hesitate to ask them. She shoots another query “You mean what you are saying or you are just saying as it sounds good.” Dad senses some sarcasm but replies affirmatively. The girl then says “But I have seen otherwise.” When she is asked by her father to explain why she says so. She explains that she has noticed people talking bad on balk of people who have failed many times and talks wonderfully for people who succeeded. She has never seen anyone, including her father, respecting any person who have failed.
Father feels ashamed for not having anything to help her daughter, but at the same time he is proud for his daughter’s logical thinking. He introspects and finds that even he did not appreciate people with too high age or having too many failures. He don’t know what is to be respected, but at least he knows that he never respected the Age or the experience.
Life Lessons 