By Kevin Brown | Bio
Recently, I had the privilege of meeting with a local group of leaders that were actively engaged in Eldering activities in the heart of Calgary Alberta, Canada. I was fortunate in that one of those leaders, my Uncle George Hopkins (a gentleman who really espouses the Eldering Principles), shared with me the contribution a group of seniors are making within their community.
George is currently active with a group of elder leaders in his community bringing together seniors
By Jim Selman | Bio
Paradigm is one of those words that has become so over-used and misused that to say it in polite company or even in a corporate workshop will have eyes roll and people sigh as if the term itself is something to be endured. I am one of those people who say it a lot, have a pretty good idea of what I am talking about, and believe it is important for ordinary people to understand that most of our persistent problems are paradigm problems. That is, our dominant and collective interpretation
By Jim Selman | Bio
The early Boomer retirees are rewriting the book of what ‘freedom from having to earn a living’ means. Of course, there is the rush to enjoy some of the perks of our new-found freedom. But once the lustre of all that unscheduled time wears off, we’re faced with the realization that retirement can also mean the freedom to take on those issues we either didn’t have time for when we were younger or were afraid to risk what we had going at the time for. But for most,
By Jim Selman | Bio
I have had several conversations with friends in Buenos Aires about how people deal with their financial security in their older years. To my surprise, the uniform answer is that they mostly don’t. Then I hear a story which, by my naïve North American standards is shocking, but whhich reveals something important for all of us as we contemplate our own future and worry about the uncertainties in the financial markets.
The story goes like this. Prior to 1994, all pensions in
By Jim Selman | Bio
Last evening we were having a lively family conversation about life in general and Eldering in particular. We talked about whether there is, in fact, a ‘generational divide’ and, if so, what can we say about it. To my surprise, my children and my son’s girlfriend all felt that there was less of a divide in the minds of people their age than in the minds of people my age. I asked the question, “What do young men and women talk to each other about that you would be reluctant
Young adults who like being at home with their parents are now trend-setters. If the recent economic crisis has you looking at moving back home to live with family, you’re not alone. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, from 2000 to 2007, there has been a 67% increase in the number of Americans who are living with an adult as head of their household
By Jim Selman | Bio
I have said many times that I view one of the biggest threats to our way of life (and at least the medium-term future) is widespread and institutionalized =&0=&. Resignation is a mood that most of us have experienced and many are experiencing today. It is a worldview devoid of possibility. It is the perspective that ‘nothing can be done’ and ‘nothing will really make a difference’. It is giving up, but in a way that justifies and rationalizes that giving up is the rational and reasonable thing to do. The benefit of resignation is that we can stop thinking or struggling.There is a difference between true ‘acceptance of those things I cannot change’ and resignation. Resignation is not a choice; it is a succumbing to the circumstances and buying into a ‘no possibility’ scenario. I was sitting next to a man last week from Mexico discussing the Mexican government’s campaign against drug cartels. He assured me that all the effort and all the lives that have been lost are meaningless and that corruption and organized crime are a permanent
By Jim Selman | Bio
In 1976 I was working with some government employees in Virginia trying to implement a new system for integrating human services—a kind of one-stop shop for all the various services offered at that time. I had just finished the est training the previous July and was overwhelmed with my own experience and the idea that a person could transform themselves and their relationship to everything. Until then, I had bought into the belief that people don’t really change in fundamental ways, that personalities are fairly fixed, and that it requires a major crisis to shift our perceptions of reality. It was during that period that I formulated the idea that there were things that could be managed or taught and other things that could not be managed or taught but that could be “coached”. The difference had to do with how we observe others and ourselves and how we relate to power and responsibility.This was a time before the concept of organizational culture had appeared in the business lexicon. I don’t think I even heard the word ‘paradigm’ until about 1980 or so. Peter Drucker was about the only popular writer on the subject of management. This was a time when people thought in terms of careers spanning a lifetime and many even expected to work for one or perhaps two companies for life. Tom Peter’s landmark book, “
By Jim Selman | Bio
I came across an article on Becoming Wiser Together by an old acquaintance of mine, George Por, in Kosmos Journal in which he was talking about the idea ‘that the future is already here’ but that we have different sensibilities and awareness of what it is and the possibilities it brings. George has been working for decades on the idea of what some of us might
By Jim Selman | Bio
I read a nice piece called Welcoming the Approach of the Golden Years by Gary Westover talking about his growing awareness that he has a choice about how he grows older. He can follow the path of his parents and others and deteriorate each year until finally succumbing to dementia or worse. Or he realizes he can see that it is his attitudes and expectations that create the future he is living into and he can look forward to a continually expanding and rewarding experience of living. How we age is a choice and a commitment, it is not a given. He is realizing the difference between being an elder and becoming elderly.We have added a third distinction called ‘eldering’. Some people love the term and others say it reminds them of the fact that they are getting ‘old’ and with that thought comes the fear of being elderly. This is why there is so much resistance to growing old and people trying to hang onto their youth just a little longer. Eldering is our term for the question of ‘how to’ live to the fullest after retirement and as we enter the last third of life. Eldering is wisdom