All posts by Jim Selman

The Miracle Within

By Kevin Brown | Bio At the end of April this year, my wife and I spent a week in Nevada.  The purpose of our visit was purely one of rest and relaxation.  We spent a few days in Las Vegas and then a few in Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead, Arizona.  Our short vacation included a few days of golf (for me), some sightseeing, viewing some real estate properties, a Cirque du Soleil evening show, time by the pool, lots of dining out, and a last-minute decision to take in ‘Bodies…
The Exhibition
‘ on display at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. While each of our activities provided the rest and enjoyment we sought, it was the Bodies exhibition that left me both amazed and filled with awe.   If you have never had the opportunity to take in one of the several ‘Bodies… The Exhibition’ displays, I highly recommend you create the possibility of doing so. It is my understanding that while each exhibit has different elements, each display features actual human specimens for visitors to examine in detail. Visitors hopefully gain a first-hand appreciation for the complexity of the human body.   I cannot think of another exhibit that has impacted me the way this one did. I felt a deep sense of amazement viewing full bodies with the skin removed, exposing internal organs. the nervous and arterial systems left me in complete awe with their complexity. I was disturbed viewing the portion of the exhibit that featured fetal development from 1 week to 12 weeks.  Disturbed because I support the right to choose an abortion and now am left with images of the fetus at 1, 3, 6, 8 and 12 weeks…all of which were fully recognizable as human life! Leaving the exhibit, I was left to consider the complex workings of the human body as nothing short of a miracle.   Webster’s has several definitions for ‘Miracle’, including extraordinary events linked to divinity to simply an extremely unusual event, thing or accomplishment. Other sources seem to invoke statistical improbability, survival of natural disasters, survival of terminal illness, and yes, even birth itself. For me, I think of a miracle as an occurrence for which there is no reasonable explanation. In my life, I cannot remember a time or event in which I experienced one. Certainly there have been events which I was willing to attribute to a miracle (for example, the survival of everyone following the plane crash on the Hudson River). I, however, have had no personal experience of a miracle, at least not one I was present to.   Leaving the Bodies Exhibition, I was left to consider "the miracle within" my own body. When I considered the enormous complexity of all the internal systems at work and the real-time communication within and across bodily systems, I could not help but consider the miracle that occurs in both the design and the operation of our bodies. Whether we attribute our internal workings to genetics and evolution or to divine creation, the ‘Miracle Within’ is something to consider each and every morning when we rise to face another day.

Imagine the possibilities we can generate when each new day begins with a recognition of our own ‘Miracle Within’!

© 2009 Kevin Brown. All rights reserved. read more

Social Networks for the Future

The first intergenerational center in England is set to
open in October, providing shared services and facilities for children, older
people, young people and families. Although the approach has been around since the 1960s in the US, Europe has only seen growth in these projects in the last 5 years. 

The breakup of the extended family means older people and young
people are less likely to come into contact than in previous centuries.
The roots of intergenerational practice lie

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Multigenerational Households

The recession has created a new trend: adults moving back in with their parents. According to AARP, these ‘blended’ multigenerational households have risen to 24% of the nation (representing a total of 6.2 million) between 2000 and 2008. Additionally, an astonishing 77% of college grads move back home after completing their education (according to a 2008 CollegeGrad.com survey, up 10% from 2006’s survey results). These ‘boomerangers’ (or returning 20-somethings) are

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What To Choose After This Bad Week

By Jim Selman | Bio

Last week was not a good week for the planet and I’ve been taking it personally. Aside from the Iran Crisis and North Korea, we had the usual games being played in Europe, South America and Southeast Asia. At some moment, I realized that I had once again drifted into a spectator role. I was trying to sort out the good insurgents from the bad insurgents, the real terrorists from the "revolutionaries", and I was finding that the conservative/liberal divide seems to be a universal constant everywhere we look.

As President Obama is declaring the possibility of mutual respect and tolerance between religions and all people, we see Iran’s "Supreme Leader" declaring ‘death’ to all who oppose the current regime and the North Korean guy promising to drop the big one if anyone screws around with his boatload of nuclear armaments going to the Middle East.

I am of two minds here. On one side, I am tired of playing good guys and bad guys and want to just scream…"STOP!

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The Latest on Aging

The New York office of the International Longevity Center held their 10th annual Age Boom Academy earlier this month. Interesting tidbits picked up from this year’s event include:

  • According to George Martin, professor of pathology at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, a botanist defines aging as "everything that happens from the beginning of
    development until death" and a biologist
    defines it as "the decline that starts after organisms

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No Regrets, Let’s Clean Up the Mess Together – Part II

By Jim Selman | Bio

"The worldviews of our two generations are both equally valid. They are simply our assessments of ‘the way it is’ and what is and is not possible. Neither of our assessments are ‘the truth’. And neither are ‘false’.

Understanding this doesn’t make understanding each other’s perspective any easier. I have experience and perspective that you don’t have, just as you have experience and perspective that I don’t have. I may never understand the appeal in having tattoos or spending large amounts of time in virtual space. You may never understand the kind of ‘faith’ many of my peers have in public institutions. If we are going to work together, we need to be able to accept and appreciate

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No Regrets, Let’s Clean Up the Mess Together

By Jim Selman | Bio

The Wall Street Journal last week had an article on the new theme of the annual commencement speech celebrity sweepstakes: “We are really, really sorry”. On campus after campus, speakers of the Boomer generation were apologizing to the twenty-something generation (I don’t remember the nomenclature for this batch of graduates) for the self-centered and often greedy abuses of

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Pessimist or Optimist: Who Has the Edge?

By Jim Selman | Bio

I was reading an interesting article by a prestigious think tank this morning that was saying perhaps the ‘recession’ isn’t as black or white as most of us make it out to be and that it most certainly isn’t as bad as conventional wisdom and media hype would have us believe. I noticed I felt a little better after reading it, but then I wondered why my mood shifted so easily based on only one article. Tomorrow I could read a darker scenario by another equally reputable

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Social Networks: Ending Isolation

Earlier this month, the NY Times reported that researchers are now looking into the possible benefits of older people joining social networks. With one third of people over 75 living alone (according to a 2009 AARP study), the National Institute on Aging will be awarding $10 million in grants to explore "social neuroscience and its effect on aging". According to comScore, a media measurement

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