By Rick Fullerton | Bio
On my way to a candlelight vigil for climate
justice, I wondered who else would show up. It was minus 5 Celsius and
with the wind chill it felt like minus 25—bitterly cold by any measure.
Hardly a day to be concerned about global warming. Yet some 200
committed souls braved the cold—some on foot, some on bicycles, and
others (reluctantly) by car. By the time I arrived, the vigil
organizers had thankfully decided to move the event inside. Once out of
the cold wind, I was impressed by the strange bedfellows who had come
together to express their commitment to the future of the planet.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
climate_justice
collaboration
common_cause
faith
leader
purpose
 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]
Written by eldering at Health
Tagged with:
breakthrough_foundation
eldering
est
health
hunger_project
purpose
transformational_technologies
vietnam
werner_erhard
 By Jim Selman | Bio
I am getting ready to fulfill one of my
dreams. I have always wanted to go to Africa, but for one reason or
another it was always too expensive, too far away or the opportunity
just didn’t click at the right time. In March, I will be going and I am
both excited and a little anxious since I am not quite sure what to
expect. As I watch myself preparing, I realize that the best part of
getting ready is that I don’t know what to expect—and that is the good
news. Too much of our lives is spent living into expectations, which is
one reason why we often get what we expect and are so surprised when we
don’t.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Retirement
Tagged with:
africa
choice
future
purpose
retirement
richard_leider
transformation
By Jim Selman | Bio
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 eldering at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
attachment
elder
passion
purpose
By Jim Selman | Bio
I
was working on the design of a course the other day and musing about
what would someone in my circumstances want to ‘get’ from a workshop
about ‘designing the rest of my life’. When I began to think about it,
I realized I’m happy and okay financially. I have lots of friends and
family and experience lots of love. I am still engaged in my career and
have numerous outlets for my creative impulses. All in all, I can’t
think of much that I want that I don’t have or couldn’t easily acquire.
But the one thing that did occur to me is that I would like to have the
kind of passion I felt in the ‘70s when we were crusading for civil
rights, campaigning for peace, and bringing down those who supported
the war in Viet Nam. It was the kind of passion I saw again in Chicago
as Obama became our president elect.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
context
passion
purpose
 By Shae Hadden | Bio
The official
arrival of fall always surprises me. It’s never the change in weather
so much as the passage of time that draws me up short—what happened to
the last few months of my life? This year I feel as if I’ve been lost
in a time warp while the rest of the world runs ahead at its crazy
pace…and as if I’m only just beginning to rejoin the rest of the human
race. And no, I didn’t go on an extended vacation or take a leave of
absence. All I did was connect to my purpose…and then my body seemed to
fall apart. Strange, but I’ve come to realize a distinction between
purpose and meaning through being ‘sidelined’ with health issues.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
health
intention
interpretation
meaning
purpose
By Jim Selman | Bio
I
like this word. I don’t know why…perhaps because it is one of those
words that seems to express itself in speaking of it. The word means
‘anxiety’—a kind of generalized anxiety with being alive. The existential philosophers talked a lot about angst. In fact, we
normally associate angst with existentialism—existential angst. The
word is usually associated with a negative mood such as depression or
what Thomas Merton characterized as “the dark night of the soul”. I
think that Heidegger talked about it as the inherent tension between
‘being’ and ‘non-being’. I think that angst underlies the ‘suffering’
that Buddha associated with human existence and probably is behind the
concept of ‘original sin’. Whatever its origins or deeper meanings, it
is a day-to-day practical reality for most of us in our unending quest
to ‘get it right’ and ‘be happy’.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Leadership
Tagged with:
angst
conversation
existentialism
purpose
service
By Jim Selman | Bio
I was talking to my neighbor today about
the book that Shae and I are working on. It is about retirement and
we’re engaged in the question of ‘when’ does retirement occur. Is it
merely an ‘event’ that happens at the end of our last job? My thinking
is that it is whatever is left of our lives when our primary concern in
life is no longer about earning a living. In this context, a trust fund
baby could be born retired just as a person who is ‘retired’ could
still have an occupation. Even a homeless person (if homelessness as a
choice) might be seen to be ‘retired’—as Roger Miller’s “King of the
Road” would suggest.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Retirement
Tagged with:
concern
decline
prime
purpose
retirement
time
 By Marilyn Kentz | Bio | Website
Unlike
in our mothers' and grandmothers' day, you and I are bombarded with
young, beautifully and magically enhanced women 24 hours every day.
Frequent ads remind us that we should be defying our age. Half the
time, I don't even know I should be worried about something until a
commercial tells me so. [ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
age_spot
aging
change
purpose
wrinkles
I have been doing a bit of work in the area of corporate social
responsibility (CSR) lately. It is becoming a hot topic in
organizations and a lot of very committed people are thinking about how
to think about the mix of economic, social and environmental concerns.
Traditionally, the sole purpose of business as an economic enterprise
is to make a profit—and therein lies the problem. Yes, all would agree
that this purpose includes being ethical, honest and responsible for
stakeholders directly related to the organization and its activities.
The fact is that business today is the predominant institution in the
world—in terms of resources, governmental influence, technology and
capacity to bring about change. Whether business has been a major
contributor to the problems in the world is arguable. More importantly,
it most definitely must be a major part of the solutions. Until recently, CSR has been for many (though not all) companies either
a necessary component of public relations or a sincere project to find
new ways to work and do ‘the right thing’.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
commitment
corporate_social_responsibility
csr
faith
purpose
responsibility
|
RSS Feeds
