Skip to header Skip to main content Skip to footer
Helpful Village logo
Add me to your mailing list
Youtube channel Facebook page
Header image for Pasadena Village showing nearby mountains and the logo of the Pasadena Village

Blog archive

October 2024

September 2024

August 2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

First Anniversary
08/19/2024

Alexandra Leaving by Leonard Cohen
08/16/2024

Muse des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
08/16/2024

The God Abandons Antony by Constantinos P. Cavafy
08/16/2024

Ch – Ch – Ch –Changes
08/15/2024

Cultural Activities Team offers an ‘embarrassment of riches’
08/15/2024

Engaging in Pasadena Village
08/15/2024

Future Housing Options
08/15/2024

Message from the President
08/15/2024

There Are Authors Among Us
08/15/2024

Villagers Welcome New Members at the Tournament Park Picnic
08/15/2024

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
08/14/2024

A narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson
08/13/2024

Haikus
08/13/2024

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
08/13/2024

Poem 20 by Pablo Neruda
08/13/2024

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
08/13/2024

Trees by Joyce Kilmer
08/13/2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

Emergency Preparedness: Are You Ready?
05/28/2024

Farewell from the 2023/24 Social Work Interns
05/28/2024

Gina on the Horizon
05/28/2024

Mark Your Calendars for the Healthy Aging Research California Virtual Summit
05/28/2024

Meet Our New Development Associate
05/28/2024

Putting the Strategic Plan into Practice
05/28/2024

Washington Park: Pasadena’s Rediscovered Gem
05/28/2024

Introducing Civil Rights Discussions
05/22/2024

Rumor of Humor #2416
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2418
05/14/2024

Springtime Visitors
05/07/2024

Freezing for a Good Cause – Credit, That Is
05/02/2024

No Discussion Meeting on May 3rd
05/02/2024

An Apparently Normal Person Author Presentation and Book-signing
05/01/2024

Flintridge Center: Pasadena Village’s Neighbor That Changes Lives
05/01/2024

Pasadena Celebrates Older Americans Month 2024
05/01/2024

The 2024 Pasadena Village Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
05/01/2024

Woman of the Year: Katy Townsend
05/01/2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

Eldership: the Last Opportunity

By Bruce Christensen
Posted: 08/30/2022
Tags:

Men's Time Topic Discussion for Tuesday, September 6 at 9:30am Pacific time.

 

A Reassessment of the role of elders in Society

By John Bing - From his newsletter

Thanks to Village Member Monica Hubbard for suggesting this article.

 

Warning: expect a highly generalized perspective.

 

The elder members of traditional societies were valued for their knowledge and wisdom. Those who had gathered and hunted the longest were thought to best know the ways of plants and animals. Those who longer knew the “Gods,” were expected to better handle prayer.

 

Doubtless, this was true in part. However, it may not have been the whole story.

 

I suggest that elders in such societies played a further critical role in the life of their communities. And understanding how might cause us to reconsider the potential value in this century of the men and women who are living healthy productive lives well into their 80s and 90s to their societies

 

I suggest that the “old” are essential to all societies—-not just as grandparents and actors in cranky codger films. And not just for the stories they can tell, or the fishing spots they know.

 

They are a source of creativity and innovation. They provide essential guidance to their societies.

 

We live in communities where positions of authority are held by a “middle group.” They represent, on the whole, those who have benefitted from the social order, from the structures of custom and law that allocate roles and determine rewards. They are an elite, a privileged class, and should not be expected to challenge the norms and rules that facilitated their “rise.” And they may not have seen the failures and suffering that were an essential part of the triumphs and successes of the past, and well understood by preceding generations.

 

Furthermore, when challenged, they are likely to use established approaches to problems that have not only changed but were never met satisfactorily by these solutions in the first place. 

 

And they will be hesitant to hear the voices of the “rising” generations, the younger men and women more attuned to the risks and possibilities of a changing world.

 

A senior generation, essentially having put aside ambition and the economic and social interests that structured their lives, are able to reinforce these new voices. The old can listen to the young in ways that established leaders, for many reasons, cannot.

 

They can ally with each rising generation and provide them with the resources and encouragement to be reckless, as well as cautious. They can patronize new forms of art and music and be the source of many truly imaginative ideas. 

 

Increasing numbers of men and women are retiring early and living healthy lives into their nineties, with opportunities for further learning and with the personal resources to spend well beyond their own material needs.

 

If only more of us, in our “golden” years, would become aware of the nature and extent of the role we could play in the years ahead.

 

 

Blogs Topics Posts about this Topic