Our society is deviant if not sick in the way that we push old people to the side and avoid them instead of honoring them. It seems related to our worship of youth and fear of death.

I remember hearing an interview with a Canadian researcher who went to Cuba to study how they did something (I forget what, perhaps health care). While visiting a seniors' centre, she saw a bunch of 10-12 year old kids playing checkers with the old people in a common room. Later, she asked the director how they had come up with so successful a program to pair kids with seniors. "What program?" was the reply. "They just come in off the street."

Such a thing is unthinkable where I live. That says a lot.