 By Jim Selman | Bio
There is an amazing website called The Brave Nation
that is showcasing people who’ve made a difference. Many of these
examples of human vision, commitment and perseverance are boomers who
challenged ‘the system’ in the '60s and '70s and are now sharing their
experience with the current generation of ‘change agents’. It is
inspiring to remember and reconnect with the idealism of our youth and
perplexing to wonder what happened to so many of us who have drifted
into complacency about (or in some cases complicity with) current
events.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action
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By Jim Selman | Bio
One of the biggest
questions most of us have is “Why do we do what we do?”, particularly
when what we do isn’t what we want to do or think we should be doing.
My answer is that, for most of us, most of the time we’re not actually
choosing what we do. We are living our life according to our historical
patterns within some narrowly proscribed personal and cultural ‘story’
about what is and is not possible and what our options are in any given
situation. In effect, we live our lives in a ‘circumstantial drift’
where the future is determined by our past.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Retirement
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By Jim Selman | Bio
I
heard someone remark that the best thing about getting older is they
don’t have to be afraid anymore. While I think that is one of life’s
‘truisms’, it falls into the same category as your mother telling you
“not to worry”—it doesn’t help much to know that when you are worried!
From what I can see, most people get more fearful and anxious as they
age. This anxiety takes various forms: fear of not having enough money,
fear of being homeless, fear of being alone, fear of becoming dependent
or of losing one’s faculties. The list could go on.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Wisdom in Action
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wisdom
 By Jim Selman | Bio
The
1970s in the USA may not have been the ‘Age of Enlightenment’, but it
was certainly the ‘Age of the Pursuit of Enlightenment’. The Esalen
Institute was in its hey day, the est training was blowing everyone’s
mind, and authentic Indian yogis were in demand. We thought the Age of
Aquarius was really here and that peace and love were just a few years
away. Maybe we were naïve, but it was a good time when young people were
trying hard to be better people and when it wasn’t embarrassing to be
idealistic.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
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future
 By Shae Hadden | Bio
Someone was
telling me recently that some of Buddhist temples in Japan are guarded
by two fierce-looking demon-like figures. These guardians of ‘Truth’
are known as ‘Paradox’ and ‘Confusion’. These days, paradox and
confusion seem to be states I alternate between in my quest to discover
who I am and what future I want to create. If I’m not confused, then
I’m trying to embrace something that defies intuition. My ‘truth’ seems
elusive.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Learning
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I spent a good chunk of my life learning to be reasonable. In business,
the mantra for any proposal was always: “Is it practical?” It seemed to
me that reasonableness (and its sister practicality) were virtues.
People who were unreasonable or impractical seemed to be
exceptions—they came across as flaky, dangerous, occasionally lucky,
unpredictable, disconnected, loose canons and, above all, they weren't
team players. When I turned 50, I came upon a quotation by George
Bernard Shaw that hit me between the eyes and totally changed my
approach to life and, in particular, my future.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
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My neighbor and good friend is moving to an apartment without stairs in
another city where there’s a better environment for retirees and a more
laid-back lifestyle. She tells me that she is ‘slowing down’. I am sure
she is making the right decision for her—stairs have become difficult
following hip surgery last year. And I am sure she knows that our
choice of wording reveals
some of the bias hidden in our cultural predisposition to the
future. To be sure, we hear a lot of people declaring that they’re slowing down. Yet, I wonder what ‘slowing down’ really means? [ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
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slowing_down
Memorial Day is about remembering the sacrifices of our countrymen and
women in past wars—it is all about patriotism and not forgetting that
every American must do their part to sustain our democratic freedoms.
As I listen to folks talking, however, there are no conversations about
this or about much of anything other than reminences about last week's
golf games or past adventures or what is so-in-so doing these days.[ Read More]
Written by admin at Retirement
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According to Professor Yarrow, a history professor at American
University, it is unpatriotic to retire while you are still in good
health.
"Retiring when you're still in good health isn't just
wrong, it's profoundly selfish and unpatriotic...Dropping out of the
workforce while still in one's prime means ending one's contributions
to America's strength, mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's
future, and leeching trillions of taxpayer dollars from the economy...
If millions of Americans worked until age 67 instead of 62...[they]
would increase national output and personal wealth and keep the labor
force at a healthy level." [ Read More]
Written by admin at Retirement
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In the 1970s, I belonged to The World Future Society. I even toyed with
the idea of becoming a ‘futurist’. I vaguely recall that there was a
magazine on the subject and various intellectuals were trying to get
prediction raised to the status of a science. According to Wired
magazine, the Society still exists and there are people who call
themselves professional futurists, but the numbers are shrinking and
their status seems to be less than in the past—primarily because the
future is increasingly less predictable (if it ever was). Yet, why do people continue to seek answers to what will the future be?[ Read More]
Written by admin at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
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