This blog post is reprinted with the kind permission of Grace Lee Boggs. It was originally published in the Living for Change Newsletter, published by the James & Grace Lee Boggs Center in Detroit.
The older I grow, the more I am convinced that the human race can only continue to evolve if we overcome the age segregation that has contributed so much to our dehumanization over the last few decades. When I was an undergraduate in the early 1930s, I heard Ira D. Reid speak at a weekend college conference and learned truths about the African American experience which I felt had been kept from me. At the time I was in my teens. So Dr. Reid (1901-1968), who was in his 30s and director of research for the Urban League, seemed much older and wiser than I would ever be. [ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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By Jim Selman | Bio
The older I am, the more I reflect on the
aphorisms all around us and wonder why it is so difficult to accept and
live with this obvious wisdom. Robert Fulghum memorialized many of them
in his bestseller All
I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. All of these
little ‘nuggets’ of wisdom we’ve accumulated over the years are
generally, well, wise. It is befuddling why so few people take them to
heart. Why do so many spend a lifetime learning these kinds of lessons the hard
way?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
There is an old
joke that says, “Sex after 60 is better than ever, but the mounting and
dismounting aren’t so pretty.” If you’re laughing, you know what I’m
talking about. If not, you’re still young enough to have something to
look forward to. I attended a conference recently featuring Steve Pavlina,
the number one blogger on personal development. The topic was about
expanding traffic to your blog and one of his ideas was to write about
something ‘timeless’, something that lots of people have in common and
that breaks the mold of everyone’s expectations. Well, my writing has
been about transforming our notions of growing older and to encourage
intergenerational dialogue, so what better topic to muse on than SEX.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Stuart James Whitley | Bio
Continuing on from yesterday's post....
2. Be patient
As the Biblical injunction provides, all things good come to those who
wait. This precondition for good temperament has two elements to it:
time and wisdom. Part of wisdom is the understanding that
active listening is a form of generosity, a key element in a mature
temperament. Waiting for the other point of view, the various possible
perspectives, or even the depletion of emotion, takes discipline.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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 By Stuart J. Whitley | Bio
I’ve been writing about the ethic of aging,
which is an internal imperative obligating the transmission of values,
ethics and wisdom from one generation to another. Usually, this is a
phenomenon that occurs unconsciously, in a way nearly invisible against
the tapestry of quotidian life. But now and then, it’s rendered
explicit, often in surprisingly casual ways. An old friend Wolf and I were in[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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By Shae Hadden
I attended the David Suzuki Foundation's first Elders for the Environment Forum
today in Vancouver, Canada. The event drew 200+ people, including Elder
representatives from several First Nations and concerned 'older'
citizens from Canada and the U.S. Following are some of the highlights
from an inspiring talk given by Miles Richardson, former Grand Chief of
the Haida Nation and a member of the board of directors of the David
Suzuki Foundation. [ Read More]
Written by eldering at News
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 By Jim Selman | Bio
My partner and I were recently enjoying
one of those lazy weekend mornings just chatting about life in general
when we got onto the subject of getting older and how we feel about it
all. I made the point that my passion and The Eldering Institute® is
about transforming our culture’s view of aging and teaching people that
we can change how we relate to the future—and, as a consequence, we can
have more choices, more possibility and more ‘aliveness’ than what most
people can expect as they grow older. Moreover, I reasoned, once people
are empowered as they age, they are free to contribute more, build
partnerships with the young and make the difference they always wanted
to make—to even take on the world’s intractable problems. [ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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By Stuart J. Whitley | Bio
I read somewhere that good
decision-making—indeed, good relations—depends upon a virtuous cycle of
respect, trust and candour (which takes some time to establish, but
which can easily be interrupted). Attitude, after all, is everything.
Perhaps that last statement needs a bit of refinement: the ethical attitude is everything. By that I mean the determination of the answer to the age-old question: who is right? Was Harold right to[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
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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 Stuart Whitley | Bio
the man with the unpressed suit and upraised arms
speaking in monotone, knows exits and oxygen masks
the woman in the seat beside me moulds latex
into monsters’ heads for movies, and wonders
if she has time for a Harvey’s hamburger, loaded,
before her bags arrive on the carousel
do these people have wisdom?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
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