By Stuart J. Whitley | BioI read somewhere that good
decision-making—indeed, good relations—depends upon a virtuous cycle of
respect, trust and candour (which takes some time to establish, but
which can easily be interrupted). Attitude, after all, is everything.
Perhaps that last statement needs a bit of refinement: the ethical attitude is everything. By that I mean the determination of the answer to the age-old question: who is right? Was Harold right to[Read More]
Last week I read that life expectancy in the United States
has now reached 78 years of age. As reported by Associated Press, a baby born
in 2007 can expect to live to the age of 78. The same report noted that heart
disease and cancer together were the cause of nearly half of U.S. fatalities,
and that Alzheimer's disease has surpassed diabetes to become the sixth leading
cause of death. Regardless of how long we can expect to live, everyone
has
a date at which time life, as we know it, will come to an end. Whether by natural
or unnatural causes, our life on earth will have a conclusion. Wikipedia defines “life expectancy” as
By Jim Selman | BioI
think that one of the things going on these days is that ‘Baby Boomers’
are waking up to the fact that they have a choice about how they age
and what it means to be old. The Boomer label is just a demographic
slogan. Personally, I don’t like being lumped into a single category
with 70 million other folks. This sociological category of “Baby
Boomer” (which is now almost synonymous with growing older) makes it
easy for us to slip into generalizations about age and aging,
generalizations that have been here for generations. Even when we
attempt to show how Boomers aren’t like other generations, we are
subtly reinforcing a profoundly negative and disempowering stereotype
of what it means to grow older.[Read More]
By Jim Selman | BioSocrates said that we don’t really have
wisdom until we learn to die. Cornell West said the same thing in the
acclaimed documentary Examined Life by Astra Taylor. When I
first became interested in aging and how our culture views ‘growing
older’ many years ago, I learned that, beyond a certain age, very few
people seem to be afraid of death. Some may be afraid of dying with
unfinished business, but we eventually reach a point when the fact of
our death is no longer such a big deal. The big question is when will
we face the fact that we will die?[Read More]
By Jim Selman | BioThe following
thoughts were shared by a friend of mine on the question of what it is
like to ‘be’ older and wiser. I think they express something we can all
learn from if we haven’t already. "What’s it like to 'be' my age? Besides the obvious physical changes, there is a kind of[Read More]
By Jim Selman | Bio"The
worldviews of our two generations are both equally valid. They are
simply our assessments of ‘the way it is’ and what is and is not
possible. Neither of our assessments are ‘the truth’. And neither are
‘false’. Understanding this doesn’t make understanding each other’s perspective any easier.[Read More]
By Jim Selman | BioThe Wall Street Journal last week had an article on the new theme of the annual commencement speech celebrity sweepstakes: “We are really, really sorry”.
On campus after campus, speakers of the Boomer generation were
apologizing to the twenty-something generation (I don’t remember the
nomenclature for this batch of graduates) for the self-centered and
often greedy abuses of the ‘me’ generation. This old theme had the ring
of a “mea culpa” without showing much of an agenda for doing much about
anything—coming across more like a challenge to the young to not make
our mistakes. Some of the youthful attendees rightfully asked, “Why don’t you clean up the mess you made?”[Read More]
Well, Dove's pro-age advertising campaign may have been banned in the US. But the conversation continues. Here's a new video about the thinking behind the campaign. What do YOU think?
The Herald Sun recently featured an article on Betty Calman, an
83-year-old instructor still going strong after 40 years of teaching
yoga. Author of 3 books on yoga and a pioneer in bringing this practice
to Australia in the 1950s, Ms. Calman was drawn back into teaching up
to 11 classes per week 8 years ago by her daughter, who runs a health
centre and needed more instructors. According to Betty, "You're never
too old. The body is a remarkable instrument. It can
stretch and stretch, and get better all the time. Forget age. Even a
basic posture, or just going to a window and breathing deeply, can have
big benefits." See Betty Calman in action.[Read More]
By Jim Selman | BioThe early Boomer retirees are rewriting
the book of what ‘freedom from having to earn a living’ means. Of
course, there is the rush to enjoy some of the perks of our new-found
freedom. But once the lustre of all that unscheduled time wears off,
we're faced with the realization that retirement can also mean the
freedom to take on those issues we either didn’t have time for when we
were younger or were afraid to risk what we had going at the time for.
But for most, this freedom means the opportunity to learn, to engage in
some form of creativity and to step up to the challenge and opportunity
of ‘Eldering’—being of service to the community and to those that
follow, using our life experience and wisdom for the betterment of our
world.[Read More]
By Kevin Brown | 
By Jim Selman | 
By Jim Selman | 
RSS Feeds
