Ageism

[Xiaoping]

I recently sold my house and moved to another one in the city. When I called my ex-neighbour Mark for a breif chat, he revealed that he was near the retiring age, i.e., he was close to my mother's age! I had always thought him just a few years older than me, because of his appearance, physical shape, his do-it-yourself house projects and more significantly, his involvement and support to various causes. He was like a young activist when he talked about social and political issues.

Mark had deliberately not told me about his age during our two years of liivng side-by-side, because of his past experienced of being discriminated because of his age. He told me that once he was in a training course and got along really well with his younger classmates. But after telling them about his age, he felt a drastic change in his classmates. They effectively made him an outsider.

"I would have behaved differently towards you, if I had known your real age," I told Mark. It was then, I realized that I had been guilty of ageism, despite of my best intention to be fair and a good person. "But I have learned from you a lesson today. And I will not behave any differently towards you in future."