Have you seen the YouTube clip of the Zimmers— a group of older folks singing a refrain from “My Generation” by The Who?
They look like they’re having a good time making the point that their generation is cool too. Interestingly, a lot of normally ageist folks are applauding—expressing a kind of ‘good for you’ (you nice, sweet, otherwise decrepit old fogies). Personally, I think the song and the singing are fun, but it also reinforces a lot of ‘old people’ stereotypes.
Putting
I was reading the findings from David Suzuki’s latest environmental awareness campaign. It’s a series of conferences and town hall type meetings called “If YOU were Prime Minister…”. It’s a good idea in terms of expanding the discourse and engaging lots of people in an important, even critical aspect of our public life. It grabbed me in part because I’m with my parents this week and listening to
By Shae Hadden
Bio
In
effect, we’re judging whether their actions are ‘normal’ and
‘acceptable’—as compared to the majority of people of that same
chronological age in our society. But our assessments are neither true,
nor false. They are simply our perspective, our evaluation, of what we
perceive.
In many cases, our assessments have nothing to do
with age—they simply mask our judgments of the individual’s social
behavior or growth (either emotional, mental, physical
I’ve been musing about David Suzuki’s campaign some more…. If I were leader of a major nation, I think I’d be overwhelmed by all the input from every imaginable camp, not to mention the politics of decision-making and the drift toward ‘governance by poll’. I don’t think there is a centralized institution in the world capable of taking on all the items that need to be addressed in the timeframes that
Wisdom doesn’t count for anything without action. For example, we all know it’s good to maintain a positive attitude about life and the future, but it doesn’t help much to know that when you have a bad attitude.
I’m going to start a new section at Serene Ambition called “Wisdom in Action”. I want to challenge everyone to share some bit of wisdom they’ve learned along the way. Submit it as a comment to this post or as a story (see the left sidebar).
I am fed up with the media’s obsessive coverage of disasters and tragedies almost exclusively in a context of blame (and occasionally credit) for whatever it is that they are covering. We’ve been subjected to a week of ‘windbagging’ about who is responsible for the shootings at VA Tech. The killer’s justification was, “You made me do it.” He took no responsibility for his actions: he acted irresponsibly. We know the guy was nuts and, no
There is value in distinguishing ‘politically correct’ ways to speak about people who might otherwise be ignored in our collective ‘blind spot’. Such speaking can highlight inequity and discrimination and raise our awareness of those areas where our actions and our values don’t line up—where we aren’t walking our talk!
I also think there are areas where nitpicking labels can be overdone and even undermine the point that needs to be made. It’s one thing to eliminate sloppy and pejorative
By Don Arnoudse
Bio
My
daughter, Sara, is about to turn 21. Her impending birthday has
triggered my own memories of that familiar refrain of youth…”I can’t
wait until I’m old enough to….go to school, to learn to drive, to vote,
to get a credit card, to stay out past midnight, to travel on my own,
to get my first apartment, to get my first real job, to go to night
clubs and bars, and so on and so on.”
It got me to wondering.
What are the advantages of age now that I’m staring 60
Once again we’re subjected to endless all-channel coverage of events that, while notable, do not justify round-the-clock, mostly prurient commentary. The tragedy at Virginia Tech has spawned copycats at Johnson Space Center and other schools around the country. Most are simply threats, but it just takes one ‘for real’ to fuel the media frenzy.
As we know, the news channels keep a stable of ‘experts’ on hand to give their views on every imaginable subject. Retired Generals give armchair
By Stu Whitley
Bio
This post is the first in a thee-part series.
The older we get, I think, the more clearly we see how important it is to be patient in our listening.
I read something a little while ago by Jose Kusugak, President of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, in Nunavut. He was writing about a childhood Inuit game called Aaqsiiq,
the ‘silence game’. What a wonderfully simple but elegant concept:
removing