By Jim Selman | Bio
As founder of The Eldering Institute, I am a bit embarrassed to acknowledge that until last week I had not asked the straightforward question, “What is an elder?” This is not to say I haven’t been involved in the conversation for quite a long time. I have spoken with Elders in aboriginal communities, African tribes, and religious communities. I have read everything I can find on the subject. There is no doubt that the
Most of the attempts to categorize people who are older (“temporally
challenged”, seniors, golden oldies and so forth) are usually attempts
to find a label to make a state or condition that most people relate to
as ‘negative’ seem nicer. Ronni Bennett has some interesting thoughts about language
and how our labels often reveal a lot about how we observe and relate
to others and the world in general. I agree with her that most of it is
nonsense, and I like the term Elder.
When
talk