by Ruth Woodhouse

Created on: October 10, 2007   Last Updated: November 25, 2011

No matter how old you are, you have something of value to contribute to other people's lives. One way you can do that is by recording your life's vast experiences, your thoughts, views and opinions that have been honed over many years.

Older people have a wealth of wisdom and insight to share that the rest of us can be helped, enriched, encouraged and inspired by. They see things with the benefit of hindsight, which is always an extremely reliable and powerful source of the most valuable information.

How many mistakes might those who are older save young people from making simply by passing on what they have been through? History is made up of the combined experiences of all the individuals who ever lived - and we all have so much to gain from the personal histories of each other. As a wise person once put it, "Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it".

Younger generations could be saved so much heartache, pain and sorrow by reading and taking on board the lessons shared by those who have learned them through bitter experience. Of course, we all make our own mistakes, but some could certainly be avoided by being open to learn from those who have done the time - wearing smoother paths through life for those who are willing to heed their advice.

We can also find out what the most important things in life are from the vantage point of those who can look back and see the big picture. We can learn so much about what ought to have highest priority in our lives and what will give us the greatest joys to count in our own senior years. We can be also be greatly encouraged through the tough times by their reflections on what makes life worth living.

In today's world, so many younger people are living life without much personal guidance from older generations. Families are often smaller or fractured - and in many cases there is far less communication and personal involvement than there was in past generations, when the extended family was very closely inter-connected. So there is a great need for younger people to have increased ways of learning from the older and wiser members of society.

We need their input as much as younger people did in years gone by -  perhaps more than ever in these complex times. So many young people are losing their way in life, and they need the older generations to illuminate the tried-and-true course through life's great maze.

Yes, there are things that many of them won't know a lot about - like the technology that younger people

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