By Elizabeth Brown
By Stuart J. Whitley | Bio
“O body swayed to music,O brightening glance,How can we know the dancer from the dance?”—W.B. Yeats, "Among School Children" (1928)
I had lunch with an old friend, a Tlingit elder, Harold, today. I’ve known Harold for nearly a dozen years. And I know him to be a serious, thoughtful man; he’s someone who has taught me many things, not the least of which was the powerful consequence of even the smallest positive intervention in someone’s life. I have seen it in action: Harold is the embodiment of Emerson’s dictum that it is one of the most beautiful compensations of
By Jim Selman | Bio
I was listening to a lecture today on the philosopher Martin Heidegger. He is pretty difficult to understand at the best of times, even though I have been a student of his thinking for many years. The lecture today spoke of the distinction he made between ‘tradition’, which he felt was a bad thing, and ‘heritage’, which he thought was a good thing. In fact, he felt heritage was essential to understanding the true nature of ‘Being’.
I won’t pretend to grasp it all
By Stuart J Whitley | Bio
In my last post I wondered about whether or not there was an ethic of aging. Again, by ‘ethics’ I mean simply some general consensus or agreement about what is good about the way we relate to one another. This is a group or communal expression of belief, rather than an individual or moral outlook. The distinction is thus simply drawn between morals and ethics, terms which are often interposed. I should be more explicit and ask whether there is a reasonable consensus
By Sharon Knoll | Bio
Cooking with my daughter, Krista, is bliss. We were making Crabby Crabcakes, an incredible recipe from Mark Bittman at the NY Times. They were 99% crab with a little bit of stuff we purchased at the Queen Anne Farmers Market to hold them together: brand new potatoes baked with olive oil and rosemary, and sautéed summer squash and caramelized onions with herbs. (Can you stand it? Are you ready to rush out and cook and enjoy the wonderful tastes of fresh grown
By Kevin Brown | Bio
I had the pleasure of spending last weekend in San Francisco. It has been over 5 years since I last visited the city, and so I was looking forward to experiencing all that it and its people have to offer. From a tourist perspective, my expectations were met in terms of sightseeing, enjoying the variety of restaurants, and taking in some of the museums and art galleries. On this trip, however, my eye turned to the needy, the homeless, and the many people on the street who appeared
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
By Kevin Brown | Bio
It seems that no matter where I turn these days, the search for happiness seems to be on many people’s mind. Perhaps during this time of economic turmoil, people are reconsidering the happiness quotient they attributed to possessions and financial security. In the Telegraph of London, Richard Gray and Alastair Jamieson report that “Psychologists have found that people who spend their money on simple experiences such as going to the theatre, dining out or taking adventure holidays tend to be happier than those who buy possessions, regardless of how much they spend.” They went on to quote Professor Ryan Howell, a psychologist at San Francisco State University, who conducted the study: “In life experiences, the only thing left afterwards is a memory of the event, but this tended to give people a greater sense of vitality and of being alive, which is satisfying to the higher psychological needs that humans have. Material items do not do that to nearly the same extent.”Certainly, it has been my experience that my memories of times in which I was happy seem directed at events that occurred in my life, rather than focused on possessions that I collected over time. The happiest memories of my youth include going to the zoo, rides at the Calgary Stampede, and sailing off the coast of British Columbia as a Sea Cadet. As an adult, my happiest memories include my honeymoon, the arrival of my son, family vacations and our annual father-and-son trips.
By Jim Selman | Bio
Russell Bishop’s posting about ‘The Blame Game’ is right on the money. He uses the term “responsibility” as meaning the ability to respond —literally “response – ability”. I share his definition and am always asking people to see that responsibility has nothing to do with causality (as in who did it or who will do it). Responsibility is a relationship to the circumstances, a way of being—a declaration that we always have a choice. Anything we’re not responsible for, we are a victim of.But there is another term we sometimes confuse with responsibility and it can be an enormous source of mischief in most situations. The term is accountability. Now this word is also often misunderstood as someone’s job description or duty. I prefer to think of it as ‘count-on-ability’, the ability to be counted on for something. We can be responsible for all of it, but we still need to divide the work to be done and count on each other to deliver on what we promise.
The
By Jim Selman | Bio
There is a phenomenon I point to in my work called “already listening”. This is akin to the ‘little voice’ in our heads that goes on and on about everything. It is our internal and automatic ‘judgment muscle’. It is called already listening because it is what we bring to a conversation before anyone speaks. It is the “pre” filter that is always organizing what we think. It is not the same as hearing. We can all hear the same thing, but not ‘listen’ the same