Aging matters

There is a Japanese TV program (Cycle around Japan) that takes you through the country. This guy on a bicycle stops and does a show case at many interesting cultural spots. One of them was at a wooden comb making shop.

Because of the convenience of cheaper materials and easier process of making combs with plastic, wooden combs became forgotten items. The truth is that any quality and excellent items can never be forgotten. Recently the effectiveness and benefits of a wooden comb have been noticed and appreciate by many people from different countries.

One thing stood out for me was that craftsman must choose an aged tree to make combs because young wood would break easily but aged wood is flexibly and brings out quality of hair to shine. For trees, it may be a natural process to be flexible as they age. Unfortunately, for people it may be more natural to set in our own ways and become less flexible. If possible to choose to relax and appreciate different ideas, that would create an attitude of acceptance. To me, that sounds being flexible. How to stay open minded? How to stay flexible? How would that look like in our daily conversations?