if you meet somebody out on the street, say at a bus stop, and say they're 73 years old, do you automatically expect them to do something momentous to "earn your respect", or do you let them get on the bus ahead of you, even offering a helping hand if they need help stepping up onto the bus? And while you're sitting there at the bus stop waiting for the bus to come, do you stuff your MP3 player's ear phones into your ears and then turn up the volume, or do you pack away the music and ask him how his life has been? I'm sure he'll tell you some interesting stories, for sure.
My great aunt was difficult to live with, for sure; but, when you got her talking about the right stuff, she could spin yarns about all sorts of great stories. How she was one of the first women to join military service, how she survived the SF quake in '89, how she caught city bus to the VA in the middle of a heart attack, her life in the military and all the places she saw, her regrets of not having a family of her own, yadda yadda. How can one immediately call a person like that to prove why you, as a younger, should respect them? Here is somebody who gave her life to our country to ensure our freedoms, and simply because she can talk crazy at times she should not be respected?
Somebody talking crazy on a bus can "respectfully" be disagreed with, I'm sure.
