By Jim Selman | Bio
I was playing a trivia game and had to answer
what the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are. I got three out of four,
but had to go to go to Wikipedia to get them all: War, Famine, Conquest
and Death. These traditional Biblical symbols mark the ‘end of time’,
when all things are put right and presumably all karma is erased and
this journey will be complete. In researching each of them, I learned
that ‘conquest’ is best translated in today’s language as ‘corruption’.
The ancient notion of ‘famine’ can also be understood to encompass
epidemics and plagues. ‘War’ represents violence in all forms and Death
is pretty self-evident. These seem to me to be a good list of the dark
side of “The Force” which threatens our way of life and our collective
future.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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Susanne Wiigh-Masak has invented a way of turning human
remains into organic waste. Armed with her physics degree and engineering
experience, she has created a device that deep-freezes corpses, shatters the
body into small bits using vibrations, and then vacuums water out of the pieces.
The dry powder that remains can be placed in a biodegradable coffin and buried
just below ground. When moisture penetrates the coffin, the nutrients of the
powder support plant and insect life. The device has been only tested on pigs
so far, but people in 10 countries are interested in purchasing it to use for
humans.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at News
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
This has been a sad week. My partner’s mother died at the
age of 94. Even when the end is expected (and perhaps even welcomed after a
long period of decline), it nonetheless has a powerful impact on those who
cared. All of the clichés aside, there just isn’t much to say to the bereaved
other than “I am sorry for your loss.” As we get older, death and dying becomes
a larger part of our day-to-day reality as we lose friends and loved ones. For
“Mimi”, there weren’t many left. She outlived almost everyone of her
generation. [ Read More]
Written by eldering at Learning
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By Jim Selman | Bio
I remember a Harvard Lampoon edition of the New York Post
back during the cold war. At the top of the page, ½-inch letters
proclaimed the headline: “Russia drops the Big One—World War III
Declared”. Right below the enormous NY Post-style 6’’-wide
banner was the headline “MICHAEL JACKSON DIES”. It was funny then, but
it is not so funny now that he has, in fact, like Elvis before him,
become a force of history. I am reminded of the Lampoon as I watch the
round-the-clock all-channel coverage following Michael Jackson’s death.
It seems to me he is getting more airtime than Sammy Davis, Dean Martin
and Frank Sinatra all put together. Who else could have pushed the
Iranian election crisis to the back burner?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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The Japanese Labour Board ruled earlier this month that the death in
January 2006 of a 45-year-old senior Chief Engineer on the Toyota Camry
Hybrid Project was "karoshi" (death by overwork). He had been working
more than 80 hours of overtime a month, including evenings and
weekends, and making frequent business trips overseas. He died of a
heart attack the day before he was to travel to the Detroit Auto Show
to promote the hybrid car. Toyota has issued a statement that it would
step up efforts to monitor the health of its workers. Japan
recognized karoshi in 1987, and has been logging instances ever since
of healthy men in their 20s and older dying suddenly from heart attacks
and strokes brought on by overwork. The practice of "voluntary
overtime" is an established practice in Japanese society, one that is
coming under increasing scrutiny. Just a few months ago, a Japanese
court ordered the government pay compensation to the widow of another
Toyota employee who died of heart failure in 2002 after working more 80
hours of unpaid overtime per month.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at News
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 By Rick Fullerton | Bio
For
much of my life, I have had a private conversation about dying. It
began as a young child, probably triggered by overhearing my parents
talking about people fighting cancer or other scary diseases. When I
was 12 and our family doctor knocked on the schoolroom door, my first
thought was that he had figured out I was going to die. I was shocked
to discover he had come to tell me my father had died of a heart attack
at just 53. I was devastated![ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Shae Hadden | Bio
There’s a place near Fort McLeod in Alberta that goes by this odd name…the Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump world heritage site
…where the indigenous peoples used to lead the buffalo to jump off a
cliff. A place where there’s a very finite line between life and
death…and where life comes from death. You see, for thousands of years,
the native people would use this natural geographical formation to
‘harvest’ these wild animals and feed their tribes each winter. I’m
remembering this place today because I’ve been reminded—not so subtly
by being in a car accident—that life is the dash between birth and
death.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Learning
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I am writing a speech. It is the speech I would give to a college graduation ceremony if anyone ever asked me to give the commencement address. So far no one has. In the speech I am telling the new graduates they are as ‘adult’ as they will ever be and that I don’t really have any answers for them. The world is changing too quickly for me (or anyone in my generation) to presume to know what they will need to know in the future. I am also suggesting that, whatever else defines our respective generations, there is one thing we can count on—there are lots of problems that need to be solved. [ Read More]
Written by Jim Selman at Wisdom in Action
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As we grow older, we need to learn new competencies particular to
various eras in our life. For example, when we are very, very young, we
need to learn the basics of taking care of ourselves, including
personal safety, hygiene, dressing, etc. As adolescents, we put
together a ‘persona’ that works for us, learn about having
relationships, and perhaps begin to explore our sexuality. As we enter
the workforce, we learn how to function in a political space, how to
compete in productive ways, and, for some, how to succeed gracefully.
Along the way, most of us learn how to relate in various contexts,
determine what we value, and establish a variety of qualities that
constitute our ‘character’ and our identity as a unique human being. [ Read More]
Written by Jim Selman at Learning
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There has been a lot of general criticism about the self-centered
nature of the ‘Baby Boomers’. While visiting last week, my father
commented that many of today’s problems are exacerbated by the fact
that the Boomers “never lived through the Depression”. In a recent conversation with my son,
I found out he has the view that one of the biggest problems of his
generation is that they all seem to think the world should be organized
to give them whatever they want, and preferably sooner rather than
later—a collective expectation of instant gratification! When I listen
carefully to the marketers and advertisers it seems he may be right:
the underlying message they communicate is that the purpose of life
should be to get what you want—and preferably on credit. [ Read More]
Written by Jim Selman at Wisdom in Action
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