Florida Intergenerational Week |
Wednesday Dec 03 2008
Tagged with: elder intergenerational
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Thursday Nov 20 2008  By Jim Selman | BioI read a nice piece called Welcoming the Approach of the Golden Years by Gary Westover talking about his growing awareness that he has a choice about how he grows older. He can follow the path of his parents and others and deteriorate each year until finally succumbing to dementia or worse. Or he realizes he can see that it is his attitudes and expectations that create the future he is living into and he can look forward to a continually expanding and rewarding experience of living. How we age is a choice and a commitment, it is not a given. He is realizing the difference between being an elder and becoming elderly.[Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action Tagged with: elder eldering elderly leadership service wisdom
Friday Nov 14 2008 I've been thinking about why I'm not generating the kind of passion and purpose that I have had in the past. What occurred to me is that when I was younger, my ‘work’ or the cause I was working for was something that I was attached to. I mean ‘attached to’ in the sense that my point of view at the time seemed to be ‘the’ way or ‘the’ truth and, with all the energy and confidence of youth, I charged the barricades and felt empowered and inspired by the certainty that I was on the ‘side of the angels’ and a new world was coming.[Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action Tagged with: attachment elder passion purpose
Wednesday Nov 12 2008  By Jim Selman | BioOne of my friends who is about my age has been in a period of deep reflection and growth. He recently shared that he was moving into a new space of awareness analogous to the transition from adolescence to adulthood. He said he was becoming profoundly aware that he has something valuable to say and that part of his growing older is coming face to face with becoming responsible for creating a new ‘presentation’ in the world. He struggled to express this transformation: he likened it to learning a new language for expressing himself as a person, as someone who has a very different and evolving relationship with himself, other people, his circumstances and to the future. He thinks this is what we must go through as we become Elders in the truest since of the word. [Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action Tagged with: elder growing_older relationship transformation way_of_being
Monday Oct 20 2008 By Jim Selman | Bio
It’s getting hard to stay ‘upbeat’ in the face of all the economic news. The line between a recession and depression is blurring more and more each day. It seems pretty obvious that we’re entering what will be a long road to some sort of prosperity. The old joke about a recession is when your neighbor loses his or her job and a depression is when you lose your job isn’t so funny anymore. I learned today that China is embarking on an official policy of selling directly to U.S. consumers bypassing the middlemen—and that means even more pressure on the economy if they pull it off. The bottom line is that the American Dream will evade more and more of us and, in particular, the dream of living a life of leisure after retirement will evade most Baby Boomers. [Read More]
Written by admin at The Great Turning Tagged with: american_dream boomers community elder recession
Friday Oct 03 2008 By Jim Selman | Bio
The word “Elder” is becoming the vogue term for people over 60 or, in some cases, even younger. I think it is a mistake as well as inaccurate to make “Elder” synonymous with having reached a certain age. First of all, being an Elder is a role, not a fact of biology. Moreover, it is a role that exists in the context of community. The word itself distinguishes a relationship between the Elder and members of their community. More than that, I see several criteria that must be met before one can assume the role of Elder.[Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action Tagged with: age community elder relationship respect responsibility
Thursday Sep 11 2008  By Lauren Selman | Bio"Don't worry about it, you've got me in your corner." These are the words that make a child warm inside and feel like they can accomplish anything. My father said this to me the other day, and when he said it I felt like I was on top of the world and that I could do anything. I was scared and intimidated, but that fear lifted when I knew he would be there. Like Rocky in the ring, I can look back and know that he is there coaching me on my swing and my strategy. I know that my parents and their partners are there to support me in the game of life. It is clear that they are on my team. Now coming from an athletic background, I know that there is nothing more important than your team.[Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action Tagged with: elder fear generation_gap mentor team
Wednesday Jun 18 2008 Bill Plotkin's latest book, Nature and the Human Soul, offers a model for human development rooted in the natural world. Calling on the stories of elders Thomas Berry and Joanna Macy, Plotkin evokes a strong sense of a lack of maturity in a culture dominated by adolescent desires and habits. In this book, this pyschologist, ecotherapist and wilderness guide
defines eight stages of life--Innocent, Explorer, Thespian, Wanderer,
Soul Apprentice, Artisan, Master and Sage. Plotkin leads the reader to
the possibility of a society that is sustainable, cooperative and
compassionate through personal and collective evolution. His strategy
for living calls for our evolution into adulthood so that we mayachieve enduring societal change. A challenging read for elders of any age who are interested in a better world.
Wednesday Mar 26 2008
About three years ago, I assisted an aboriginal woman elder with a presentation she was doing for the media. She was trying to explain the role of justice as conceived by the first peoples of this continent. Paraphrasing her: first, she said, there is the sky over all of us, then there is the water below. What takes our breath away when we look to the rivers and the forests is the same thing that possesses us when we think about the wonder inside our own bodies. As the moon compels the oceans with forces we can feel (if not fully understand), so is every atom of water linked one to the other in performing the essential tasks that the living earth needs. A rainstorm in the mountains stirs our blood. What we do to the pond in the slough where the horses graze, we do to the world. As goes the fate of the smallest creek, goes the fate of us all. All things are connected. [Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging Tagged with: aboriginal elder ethic justice responsibility wisdom
Monday Jan 21 2008 
I was in a conversation the other day with some friends. It wasn’t long
before we were bemoaning the ‘state of the world’. We moved from
politics in Washington DC to global warming and the Middle East, then
took on the environment, the media and the latest arrest of suspected
terrorists in Spain. In a few minutes, we were feeling a bit of despair
at the seemingly endless list of intractable problems, most of which
are threatening our quality of life—if not the future of our entire
species. Even though I am almost a professional optimist, I still sometimes feel
the ‘pull’ toward resignation, an almost irresistible urge to just
throw in the towel.[Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging Tagged with: elder global_warming resignation terrorists |
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