All posts by Jim Selman

Fearless Aging

The Elders Update

Nobel Laureate Martti Ahtisaari has joined The Elders, replacing Muhammud Yunus who has stepped down due to the demands of his work. According to Mr. Ahtisaari, "Peace is a question of will. All conflicts can be settled, and it is
intolerable that violent conflicts defy resolution for decades, causing
immeasurable human suffering.

Martti Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2008 for his efforts on several continents and for more than 3 decades to resolve international conflicts.

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Wisdom in Action

AVATAR: Activism through Fiction

By Lauren Selman | Bio

“Sarah…just saw Avatar, it was great!” “Mark…wants you to see Avatar!” The facebook status updates of my friends keep pouring in. Not interested in another blockbuster blow-em-up movie, I looked to my various communities to see what people think and sure enough the reviews are there too. Young and old, Democrat or Republican, Eco-Conscious and Eco-Hating, the status updates had a clear message, to see Avatar.

Okay, fine! I’ll see it. I had been told it was an

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Fearless Aging

Moods

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 become a kind of self-fulfilling story and can justify just about anything). For example, I know a man who believes that he is, more or less, permanently doomed to procrastinate and put off what he knows he needs to do until the last minute. He then begins to become annoyed with himself weeks before

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Wisdom in Action

Toward a Brighter Future

It’s easy to get involved in the fight against climate change. You can start by measuring your climate impact and then managing your environmental footprint. Brighter Planet allows you to watch your carbon footprint with an online tool assessment that prompts you to answer questions, and a sophisticated emissions model tells you what your footprint is. You can watch it change over time as you learn to live a more carbon-free life.

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Personal Empowerment

Is Peace Enough?

By Shae Hadden

In every moment, all possibilities are happening:

  • birth, rebirth, death
  • love, fear
  • war, peace
  • compassion, hate
  • trust, distrust
  • harmony, conflict
  • poverty, wealth
  • starvation, obesity
  • disease, health
  • beauty, toxic waste
  • wisdom, folly
  • youth, adulthood, elderhood
  • creation, destruction

And so on….

Opposing forces are constantly in dynamic motion, striving for balance and harmony.

When 99.99% of human beings all desire the same things (to live peacefully, feed their families and enjoy life’s abundance), it is no longer enough for us to simply strive for peace.

In these challenging times, we need to transform the entire dance of creation and destruction.

More later on why peace may not be enough….

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News

Creating Home in the Nursing Home

The Pioneer Network, in collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), will be hosting Creating Home in the Nursing Home, a one-day symposium, on February 11th in Baltimore. This second national symposium on culture change will focus on  Food and Dining Requirements and will feature a keynote by Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Recommendations

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Wisdom in Action

Optimism and Pessimism

By Jim Selman | Bio

Here we are at the beginning of another new year. All the “Happy New Year” greetings are fading and we all seem to be digging in for the coming months.  We seem to ebb and flow with a kind of seasonal ‘mood swing’ and now, in the middle of winter, are beginning to get down to business. In general, most of us start a new year being optimistic—filled with resolution(s), ready to put the mistakes from 2009 behind us and eager to take on the world or ourselves or

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