 By Stuart J. Whitley | Bio
I had lunch with an old friend, a Tlingit elder, Harold, today.
I’ve known Harold for nearly a dozen years. And I know him to be a
serious, thoughtful man; he’s someone who has taught me many things,
not the least of which was the powerful consequence of even the
smallest positive intervention in someone’s life. I have seen it in action: Harold is the embodiment of Emerson’s dictum that[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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 By Kevin Brown | Bio
Recently I was reading a blog post by Paul Span and the associated stream of comments in the New York Times concerning
the use of contracts between a family member providing care, a family
member receiving care, and other family members. I must say that
initially I found the idea of a contract somewhat disturbing. I realize
that the idea bothers me because I hold the view that a family
caregiver should be approaching caregiving out of a sense of
responsibility, love and compassion. Imagine if our parents could have
entered into a contract for parenting in which their time invested was
logged and at some future point we (the children) would have to pay our
parents for their time and out-of-pocket expenses. Silly, you might
suggest, because our parents [ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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By Jim Selman | Bio
I remember a Harvard Lampoon edition of the New York Post
back during the cold war. At the top of the page, ½-inch letters
proclaimed the headline: “Russia drops the Big One—World War III
Declared”. Right below the enormous NY Post-style 6’’-wide
banner was the headline “MICHAEL JACKSON DIES”. It was funny then, but
it is not so funny now that he has, in fact, like Elvis before him,
become a force of history. I am reminded of the Lampoon as I watch the
round-the-clock all-channel coverage following Michael Jackson’s death.
It seems to me he is getting more airtime than Sammy Davis, Dean Martin
and Frank Sinatra all put together. Who else could have pushed the
Iranian election crisis to the back burner?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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 By Rick Fullerton | Bio
Over the past few months I have been an
absentee blogger, a consequence of having accepted a full-time work
assignment that I expected to last two years or more. I was enticed by
a personal request for my services to lead a strategic initiative that
would call on my experience and skills. So after nearly 10 years as a
freelance consultant, I returned to work inside an organization at age
62. Any major decision like this comes with[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Learning
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
I 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 eldering at Wisdom in Action
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
Think about the positive attributes of
growing older, and ‘wisdom’ will always appear near the top of the
list. Until recently, I had assumed ‘wisdom’ was a kind of ‘right
knowledge’. Every time someone says the Serenity Prayer, I am reminded
of this attribute again.
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot
change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to
know the difference.”
I wonder if I do know the difference.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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By David Korten | Website
Read the first part of the article here.
Learning to be Human If
the properly functioning human brain is wired for caring, cooperation,
and service, how do we account for the outrageous greed and violence
that threaten our collective survival? Here we encounter our
distinctive human capacity to suppress or facilitate the development of
the higher order function of the human brain essential to responsible
adult citizenship.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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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:
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By Rick Fullerton | Bio
Last
week I began a new job. In itself, this is not remarkable; people
change jobs as a regular occurrence, whether as a result of individual
initiative or organizational circumstance. For me, this latest career
move serves as a stimulus to reflect on my commitments and priorities
and how these evolve over time.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Retirement
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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'. There are lots of strategies for dealing with angst.[ Read More]
Written by Jim Selman at Personal Empowerment
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