By Jim Selman | Bio
I have been making the
case that our country is trapped in a vicious cycle, analogous to
alcoholism or any addictive spiral that inevitably leads to ‘hitting
bottom’, and that we need a rigorous ‘recovery’ program. Our
Constitutional Democracy cannot work if our founding principles, the
Constitution itself , and the institutions responsible for sustaining it
are not aligned and functioning as a whole. In the ‘recovery’
literature and all 12-Step programs, the first and primary question to
resolve is “Where is the bottom?” Have we had enough of having enough?
Are we ready to acknowledge that the system is broken and we are
powerless to fix it? If we are, then we can begin the real journey to
recovery.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
12_step_program
america
constitutional_democracy
context
faith
recovery
surrender
By Jim Selman | Bio
Perhaps the most pervasive and omnipresent
aspect of being alive is our moods. We are always in one mood or
another. Moods are either positive or negative and they ‘color’ our
experience of living, affect how we relate to others and our
circumstances, and have extraordinary power to open or close
possibilities. If we examine this phenomenon, we can see that our moods
are portable—we take them with us wherever we go. I can be angry at
home and find that mood affecting me at work or even on the golf
course. Moods are also[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
Tagged with:
action
choice
commitment
context
future
mood
possibility
resignation
 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 role of Elder has been important
throughout human history and continues to be so in many communities on
the planet. But understanding the role of an elder in a particular
community context is not the same as understanding what an elder really
is, at least in our modern world. To say this differently, how would
you know if you were an Elder? How would you know one if you met him or
her?[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
Join discussion COMMENTS [1]
Tagged with:
community
context
elder
role
By Jim Selman | Bio
Yesterday
I was coaching a friend of mine. I was sharing a bit of how important
it is to ‘come from’ your vision for your life. Our future is always a
product of our actions, and our actions are always a correlate of how
we relate to the future. When we act as if the future has already
happened, then it is only a matter of time before that future is
realized or we learn what we need to learn to achieve it. Her response
was, “Well, you make it sound so simple, but it is too abstract and I
need to know ‘how’ to have what I want in the future.” This was my
response.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Learning
Tagged with:
being
context
doing
learning
mastery
paradigm
By Jim Selman | Bio
I
was working on the design of a course the other day and musing about
what would someone in my circumstances want to ‘get’ from a workshop
about ‘designing the rest of my life’. When I began to think about it,
I realized I’m happy and okay financially. I have lots of friends and
family and experience lots of love. I am still engaged in my career and
have numerous outlets for my creative impulses. All in all, I can’t
think of much that I want that I don’t have or couldn’t easily acquire.
But the one thing that did occur to me is that I would like to have the
kind of passion I felt in the ‘70s when we were crusading for civil
rights, campaigning for peace, and bringing down those who supported
the war in Viet Nam. It was the kind of passion I saw again in Chicago
as Obama became our president elect.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
context
passion
purpose
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
Tagged with:
bottom_lines
breakdown
context
growth
natural_capitalism
reality
I don’t think it is news to anyone that we experience life through its
contrasts. We don’t notice or appreciate hot until we get cold; we can
take kindness for granted until it goes missing; we typically put off
taking care of our health until it starts to deteriorate. At this
moment, I am half-way through the longest trip of my life—mostly work
with some vacation thrown in around the edges. Consequently, I am very
present to how important ‘home’ is to me now that I am away from it for
so long. In my case, Vancouver British Columbia is home. It is a home
of my own choosing that I stumbled into while visiting my daughter when
she was attending school on Vancouver Island. As someone who has lived
in a lot of places, I found Vancouver to be everything I ever wanted.
It was love at first sight.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Fearless Aging
Tagged with:
being
context
home
people
place
I was watching the CBS show “Sunday Morning” on the weekend and it had
a segment on the dying art of conversation. The point was that with all
our technology and almost real-time connections available with email,
handhelds and social networking sites, people seem to have lost the
ability to have conversations. It was a thought-provoking and, I think,
mostly true observation about what is happening to us. The show also
showcased a new book by Stephen Miller called Conversation: A History of a Declining Art. The program drove home the fact that we may be communicating more than
ever, but we’re conversing less and less. Various people were
interviewed and all agreed that we’re losing (perhaps have already
lost) what may be one of the most basic and pleasurable aspects of
life.[ Read More]
Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action
Join discussion COMMENTS [0]
Tagged with:
community
context
conversation
creativity
culture
self-expression
|
RSS Feeds
