Blog archive
June 2023
Bridget Brewster Discovers Village Benefits
06/04/2023
Rumor of Humor #16
06/04/2023
Communications Project with Cal State LA
06/02/2023
Creative Aging
06/01/2023
May 2023
One Villager's Story
05/31/2023
Pasadena Area Liberal Arts Center
05/31/2023
Pasadena Village Responds to Rainbow Flag Burning at Pasadena Buddhist Temple
05/31/2023
Plan Ahead - And Be Prepared
05/31/2023
Tuesday, May 23 Pasadena Celebrated Older Americans
05/31/2023
Reparations, Social Justice Activity
05/24/2023
Rumor of Humor #14
05/19/2023
Rumor of Humor #13
05/12/2023
Issue #12
05/09/2023
Science Monday - Review of Meeting on April 10, 2023
05/09/2023
Conversations Re African American Artists Before 1920
05/08/2023
Beyond the Village – Suzi and Phil Hoge
05/01/2023
Congratulations Wayne April! Honored at UNH
05/01/2023
Table Topics
05/01/2023
Volunteer Appreciation at the Village
05/01/2023
“ACCIDENTAL HOST—The Story of Rat Lungworm Disease”
05/01/2023
April 2023
Jumbo Joy
04/24/2023
Pasadenans Recent Experience With Racism
04/23/2023
Recent Events Reflecting Racism
04/23/2023
Fig and Goat Cheese Bruschetta
04/18/2023
Photography for Social Justice
04/11/2023
Issue #8
04/07/2023
BEYOND THE VILLAGE - Catherine Deely
04/06/2023
Creative Writing in Older Adults
04/06/2023
Gifts of Love
04/06/2023
March 2023
Issue #7
03/31/2023
Issue #6
03/26/2023
Great Decisions update
03/14/2023
Dominion Lawsuit, South Africa and 710 Stub
03/08/2023
February 2023
2023 DEI Progress
02/27/2023
BEYOND THE VILLAGE - Doug Colliflower
02/26/2023
CONVERSATIONS WITH ART
02/26/2023
GREAT DECISIONS
02/26/2023
OLDER ADULTS RESOURCE FAIR
02/26/2023
The Important, Influential Books in our Lives - Revisited
02/26/2023
History, Resolution of the 710 Freeway
02/19/2023
Eminent Domain, 710 Highway
02/13/2023
Bernard Garrett, 710 Freeway
02/06/2023
Men's Times Gatherings
02/03/2023
January 2023
Pasadena's Senior Commission
01/30/2023
BEYOND THE VILLAGE - JIM HENDRICK
01/27/2023
GRATITUDE - IT'S GOOD FOR YOU!
01/27/2023
JEFF GUTSTADT - FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST
01/27/2023
Bernard Garrett, Incredible Black Entrepreneur
01/17/2023
What is the "Spirit Talk" Group About?
01/16/2023
Same Ol’ New Year, Brand New Me
01/12/2023
Review of 2022, Consideration of 2023
01/06/2023
BEYOND THE VILLAGE - PATTI LA MARR
01/03/2023
FROM THE CHAIR
01/03/2023
WALK WITH EASE
01/03/2023
Eldership: the Last Opportunity
By Bruce ChristensenPosted: 08/30/2022
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.