Older and wiser, you think?

What is it with the generation gap thing? Why do we so often blithely assume that just because someone's a little younger/older than we are, they don't have the same feelings we do? Here's something I wrote late last month at a time when I was badly in need of a little comfort. And which by the way, never came.

Just because I'm older

doesn't mean I don't have feelings

that I don't hurt

that I don't ache

that I don't feel confused and overwhelmed 

by forces beyond my control

just as you do.

I'm just as human as you are

just as vulnerable

just as open to pain

just as much in need of a caring word

when life hurts.

I may be older but not any wiser

than you are.