By Jim Selman | Bio
I am one of the folks who love Christmas. I
am not particularly sentimental, nor am I into elaborate decorating or
gift-giving. I just like the music and the general shift in mood that
seems to come with the season. I recognize, however, that not everyone
is ‘happy’ around Christmas time. This is the season for lots of
‘relapses’ in 12-Step programs, a ‘blip’ in suicides, and (of course)
the usual problems associated with too many parties and too much
alcohol. Whatever the reasons, there is definitely a dark side to
Christmas. As I’ve grown older, I see more clearly[ Read More]
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By Jim Selman | Bio
My partner and I were recently enjoying
one of those lazy weekend mornings just chatting about life in general
when we got onto the subject of getting older and how we feel about it
all. I made the point that my passion and The Eldering Institute® is
about transforming our culture’s view of aging and teaching people that
we can change how we relate to the future—and, as a consequence, we can
have more choices, more possibility and more ‘aliveness’ than what most
people can expect as they grow older. Moreover, I reasoned, once people
are empowered as they age, they are free to contribute more, build
partnerships with the young and make the difference they always wanted
to make—to even take on the world’s intractable problems. [ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Jim Selman | Bio
I remember this phrase from the est
training in the 1970s. It was one of the maxims the people received at
the end of the program in ‘the little book of aphorisms’. This booklet
was filled with Werner Erhard’s insights on life and basically
reinforced the idea that ‘this is it’—life is what it is and reality
doesn’t care what we think. The point was to stop being victims and
‘make a difference’. It was a great experience for hundreds of
thousands of folks looking for answers to life’s big questions like
“Who am I?”, “What is my purpose?”, “What’s it all about?”…. and on and
on. The fact is that, in spite of VietNam and a lot of social unrest,
those were exciting times when young Americans were beginning to wake
up and take responsibility for their world.[ Read More]
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By Shae Hadden | Bio
I’ve
been glancing in shop windows recently as I wander my new neighborhood.
There seem to be more sales and discounts now at the retail outlets
than ever before, as if lowering a ticketed price will lure consumers
in to buy when the prevailing mood is one of restraint and caution.
Experts argue over whether our market economy is going to limp along in
its current form or be remade or redefined. Scarcity thinking seems to
predominate consumer behavior. Meanwhile, what I don’t want us to lose
sight of are the barter and gift economies that co-exist (and continue
to evolve) alongside the regular buying and selling of goods.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Leadership
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By Stuart J Whitley | Bio
In
my last post I wondered about whether or not there was an ethic of
aging. Again, by ‘ethics’ I mean simply some general consensus or
agreement about what is good about the way we relate to one another.
This is a group or communal expression of belief, rather than an
individual or moral outlook. The distinction is thus simply drawn
between morals and ethics, terms which are often interposed. I should
be more explicit and ask whether there is a reasonable consensus around
obligations associated with the process of aging. One needs to be clear
about such things because there are many ethical issues relating to
this subject: the diminishment of worth of old people and their
relegation to institutional repositories, the abuse of the elderly, the
genetic or pharmaceutical tinkering with the aging process, and so on.[ Read More]
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By Kevin Brown | Bio
Recently, I came across an article from the New York Times entitled " Invisible Immigrants, Old and Left With ‘Nobody to Talk To’",
concerning elderly immigrants in the United States and the loneliness
and isolation that many of them experience, especially those who
speak little or no English. The article references[ Read More]
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By Jim Selman | Bio
I
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]
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By Sharon Knoll | Bio
Cooking with my daughter, Krista, is bliss. We were making Crabby Crabcakes, an incredible recipe from Mark Bittman at the NY Times.
They were 99% crab with a little bit of stuff we purchased at the Queen
Anne Farmers Market to hold them together: brand new potatoes baked
with olive oil and rosemary, and sautéed summer squash and caramelized
onions with herbs. (Can you stand it? Are you ready to rush out and
cook and enjoy the wonderful tastes of fresh grown great food?) Our cooking together is like a dance—an intensive information and learning exchange.[ Read More]
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By Kevin Brown | Bio
Increasingly I find myself thinking about the word
retirement and whether it has the appeal that it once had for the mature
worker. I remember, as if it were yesterday, my father talking about how he was
looking forward to retirement. After working long hours and raising a family,
there just did not seem much time for anything else. Through much of his
mid-life, my dad's job (conductor for the railroad) had him working away from
home and on the road during the week. Weekends were mostly reserved for rest
before returning to the job the following Monday. Often he would share how he
looked forward to being able to spend time doing the things he really wanted to
do. I just assumed that meant golfing and fishing simply because those are
about the only leisure activities that I remember my dad enjoying.
[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Retirement
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By Kevin Brown | Bio
In my previous post,
I mentioned two books that I was in the process of reading, Ken
Dychtwald's "With Purpose" and Don Tapscott's "Grown Up Digital".
Ken's book calls us to consider how we will spend our time and apply
our life experience in the later stages of our life. Don's book has us
consider the impact the 'Net Generation' is having on the world at
large. I have only begun to read "Grown up Digital" and already I am
reading it from the perspective of aging. While considering the impact
of the 'Net Generation', I am really listening for "What does this mean
to the generation of baby boomers (my generation) that is about to
retire and how will it directly or indirectly influence our
generation's impact on society going forward?"[ Read More]
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