By Jim Selman | Bio
Julia Baird has a nice piece in the September 25th issue of Newsweek called “ Positively Downbeat”.
She’s commenting on Americans’ obsession with being happy and the
billions we spend to learn “the secret”. It’s all about quick and easy
fixes for life’s dilemmas and the not-so-small industry of consultants,
motivational speakers and authors that are standing in the wings to
offer answers and potions. She rightly points to the grand daddy of all
self-help offerings, “ The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale and its latest incarnation “ The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne as archetypical examples of this genre.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
Have you ever wondered where the line is
between being idealistic versus realistic? I don’t think there is an
objective answer. It is one of those questions that each of us must
answer for ourselves. The ‘idealistic’ versus ‘realistic’ divide is not
the same as ‘optimistic’ or ‘pessimistic’. Optimism and pessimism have
to do with how we relate to the future and which crystal ball we’re
looking into at the time. Whether the glass is half full or half empty
can make for interesting conversation at Starbucks, but at the end of
the day doesn’t make any difference. Reality doesn’t care what we
think. Being idealistic or realistic has less to do with[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
Sandra,
my financial advisor and friend, and I were talking about the
‘meltdown’ the other day. I was asking how my retirement investments
were doing and she shared that I probably don’t want to know. She is a
believer that markets go up and down and, over the long-haul,
reasonably conservative investing will pay off. Historically this may
be true, but somehow knowing that doesn’t help when you are afraid of
‘losing’ your life’s savings or having to live off your friends and
children when you are old. Sandra’s advice was to relax and don’t read
the newspapers. I think she is right. When I think about it,[ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
I was working with a group of people last
week in Mexico. The session was about planning and they chose as their
theme for the year “I am my word”. The idea was to emphasize
‘count-on-ability’ and the importance of delivering on plans. I spoke
to them for a bit and shared the following reflections.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Leadership
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
I went to the Broadway musical Springtime Awakening this evening. The last musical I cried in before tonight was Les Miserables. Springtime Awakening
is an exceptionally intense, well produced and acted story about youth
coming of age in Germany at some time in what would seem to be the
early or mid-1900s. It is a story that has plenty of parallels today,
including confronting hormone-driven questions about our sexuality,
about friendship, teen suicide, parental sex abuse, back ally abortions
and somehow dealing with the wounds of growing up. But it is also about the failure to connect and communicate with parents and older people in general.[ Read More]
Written by eldering 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 eldering at Fearless Aging
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I wrote a post on growth
a while ago about how insane I think it is to believe we can grow
forever—at least in terms of economic growth. I was also reading The World We Want posts
by David Korten that echoed the same sentiments but that go further to
point out that all the breakdowns that are appearing are perhaps the
greatest creative opportunity in history. That got me thinking that
while I think there are limits to economic growth, this is only true in
a finite and deterministic worldview—in a paradigm of scarcity.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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Long weekends are often an opportunity to catch up on chores, connect
with family and friends, and sometimes find time for reflection. This
Memorial Day, the reality of the war in Iraq is very present in our
thoughts and conversations. This article, Thinking for Ourselves,
by Shea Howell, from the Michigan Citizen, invites us to commit to
ending the war and to "restore our people and our country to life." [ Read More]
Written by eldering at News
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Well, it happened again. I was mugged and robbed on the street in
Buenos Aires—this time at 7:45 in the morning while walking on a major
thoroughfare. I am normally pretty vigilant at night. This time, I
stopped to window shop and before I knew it I was on the ground and the
guy had pulled my wallet from my front pocket. I instinctively tried to
kick him from the ground as he leaped over me and started running down
Avenida Florida, which is a wide pedestrian boulevard. The next thing I
know I am sprinting after him shouting “PARED, PARED, PARED” which
means "STOP!".[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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