By Jim Selman | Bio
Moods ‘color’ our experience of living. They
are all encompassing interpretations of the world—especially the
future—and tend to determine the quality of our lives. When we are in a
positive mood, the world is bright and we ‘feel’ great. When we are in
a negative mood, we typically want to withdraw from or strike out at
everyone around us. One of the most useful things we can learn as we
grow up (at any age) is that moods aren’t personal. First of all, they are involuntary. No one I know decides they will be
in a bad mood (although there are a few who more or less equate their
mood with ‘the way I am’, which can[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By David Korten | Website
Read the first part of the article here.
The Power of Conversation
Getting
out of our current mess begins with a conversation to change the shared
cultural story about our essential nature. The women’s movement offers
an instructive lesson. In little more than a decade, a few
courageous women changed the cultural story that the key to a woman’s
happiness is to find the right man, marry him, and devote her life to
his service. As Cecile Andrews, author of Circles of Simplicity,
relates, the transition to a new gender story began with discussion
circles in which women came together in their living rooms to share
their stories. Until then, a woman whose experience failed to conform
to the prevailing story assumed that the problem was a deficiency in
herself. As women shared their own stories each realized that the flaw
was in the story. Millions of women were soon spreading a new gender
story that has unleashed the feminine as a powerful force for global
transformation.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
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I have been thinking a lot about my body. In my work, the body is a key
to learning anything. Unless we ‘embody’ new distinctions, we continue
to operate inside our habitual worldview and way of being—‘inside the
box’. What I can see is that my conversation about my body, like all my
conversations needs to change as I grow older. If I attempt to apply
the same concepts and tools I learned and used as a young man to deal
with who I am today, including my body, then I am going to be trapped
in the same patterns. If my life story is any indication, I will push
‘doing it my way’ to the absolute limit before acknowledging it is once
again time to ‘grow up’. For example, when I stopped smoking, it was only after the medical messenger said ‘or else’ after a physical examination.[ Read More]
Written by Jim Selman at Health
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People sometimes ask me what I mean by ‘the culture of aging’. I can start by explaining what I mean by ‘culture’. Culture is, first of all, a word. And, like all words, it is a label for some phenomenon, some observable thing or idea. Culture is a concept and a very basic aspect of who we are. It contributes to how we relate to the world and, most of the time, constitutes an opening for our actions. It is a context for our human experience and occurs as a kind of non-stop conversation about ‘the way it is’. Culture defines our local reality, our norms and acceptable practices and, most importantly, what is and is not possible. Our paradigms or interpretations of the world persist and are maintained through culture. [ Read More]
Written by Jim Selman at Fearless Aging
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By Stu WhitleyBio
The end of anything must be at least as interesting as the beginning of
it, even if we think it’s not a particularly happy ending. As a
novelist, the end of a story I’m writing doesn’t always present itself
to me initially, and even if I think I’m working toward a particular
conclusion, the climax consistently turns out to be quite different
than that which I have conceived somewhere along the way. Oddly, I’m as
interested in the outcome as I hope a reader might be.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Learning
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 A friend was asking me why I’m so keen to change our
conversation about aging—to transform the culture of aging from one of
decline to one of possibility. One answer is self-interest, insofar as
I am growing older and experiencing more and more of the symptoms of a
culture that objectifies me and wants me to follow its prescription for
“growing old gracefully” (which means ‘slow down’, step aside, play
golf, enjoy my grandchildren, be as comfortable as possible and ‘pass
the torch’ to the next generation). While there is nothing wrong with
this scenario (and on many days it looks inviting), I want to have a
choice and not become marginalized because of my age and our culture’s
fixation on youth, speed and passing fashion.
[ Read More]
Written by Jim Selman at Fearless Aging
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