With all due respect

Generations are different from each other.

Thank goodness for that.

I suffered the deprivations of The Oregon Trail as a child. My children by contrast are touchscreen apps.

People from different generations can teach each other things, even daughters and mothers.

Last week I put on a Mary Poppins DVD in a moment of exasperation - the younger generation was literally climbing the walls. Ali settled down and watched. But Ana took on a mischievous look and slunk away to the kitchen with the DVD case.

The kitchen is the only room in the house with a slippery floor. But I didn't realize what Ana was up to until she went flying past my head like a ninja, landing with both feet squarely on the DVD case. She shot across the floor shouting "This is my Mary Poppins skaaaaateboard!"

I had never before in my life connected Mary Poppins and skateboards. Never. Short people are clinically creative. The stuff they can teach you is endless.

After a lengthy skating session, I went to check on Ali. I found her studying this wonderful scene with her serious face on.



I watched, transfixed, shocked to learn that even Mr Banks is the 99%.

This scene neatly captures the dignity OccupyLSX and their supporters. Perhaps they can use Mr Banks's riposte if the money changers ever make good on their eviction threat.

I stopped by the temple steps today. I saw a piano in one of the tents. And a woman shouting 'Shut up and go away, you idiot!' to anyone who would listen, inanimate objects included. I saw about two billion camera crews grinding out the news from anoraks, slightly bonkers posters, student debt, and broken dreams.

Hooverville. 

But the thing I remember most is an impromptu argument I witnessed between a younger man and older man.

He could not, the younger man said, afford a home for his family.

Then work harder, said the older man.

No point.

Why not?

Should he, said the younger man, work like a dog all the days of his life he would never afford a home.

People from different generations can teach each other things. Even sons and fathers.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.