It seems as though, over the years, bairams
have become the times that are only remembered and cherished by old people. Is this because of the fact that the young
people increasingly adopt the view that the “Bairams mean holidays” while
leaving the actual meaning of the bairam reserved for the old? Or is it that, due to the changes brought about by the
old age, bairams are only embraced by the old? It is worth
investigating. It would
be wise to start this investigation with the old age and the changes associated
with it.
DOES GETTING OLD MEAN GETTING EMOTIONAL?
According to the researches conducted, the
mental health during old age has not been found to be any more problematic than
any other period of human life. It has even been found that the old have
kept their emotional states in check better than the young. Surely there are some functions that
change over time! Despite the fact attention does not ebb
away with age, the ability to divert attention from one stimulus to another and
then keeping eye on the previous stimulus, in other words the ability to
simultaneously allocate attention into multiple stimuli, diminishes
considerably with aging.
While no decrease has been observed in
their vocabulary, and a certain increase noted particularly in the educated old
people, the researches have established that spontaneous speech tends to become
rather more inattentive and contain more frequently repeated words and
statements than before. The
ability to recall the names of the objects may diminish a little bit over time
as well.
It is a well known fact that learning
curve ebbs away in old age. While the
basic, crystallized intellect remains the same, the running intellect seems to
deteriorate. Deterioration in storing and recalling the
acquired knowledge is unmistakable in old age, but ability to recall the past
as part of distant memory is still there.
A decrease is observed in social
relationships with aging. Old people
become more and more conservative regarding innovation, doing and learning new
things. They lose interest in their environment
and their social relationships gradually decline. This mostly results from the inability to
do things and having difficulty moving around. Their social environment tends to shrink
due to deaths and they have difficulty establishing and nurturing new
relationships. People
tend to become more and more frugal and their interest in wealth and money
increases. They seem to be become more and more
attached to the things for which they have no actual need.
In fact, the old age is described by
Erikson as the period in which the personality comes into a full circle. Erikson suggests that “If the old possess
a full personality that is enough to hold no fear of death then the children will
have no fear of life.” What this means is an acceptance on the part of the
individual that he/she is responsible for his/her entire previous life and that
he/she has no regrets or yearnings for the past. The old who manage to achieve that have a clear future
and they have no fear of death. They don’t
get angry with the young and they care about and respect their rights.
It is difficult to decide whether the
reason for celebrating the bairam is reserved for the old is down to the fact
that they have a good memory for the past or that they are looking forward to
seeing those who will come to visit them in bairam as their social circle gets
more and more scarce. Whatever
the reason, despite their disappointment they have a heart enough to tell their
children that “Go on now, you’re young, go and enjoy yourselves”, and
they always have a spare box of candies for those who remember and visit them
in bairams to kiss their hands.
Prof. Bengi Semerci M.D.
