A path out beyond
Eldering seems a path out beyond wisdom. It runs at least a ways through responsibility.
:- Doug.
Archive for March, 2020
An increase in old people
An increase in old people signals an increase is wealth. The old people do not cause the wealth, they are its beneficiaries.
:- Doug.
Praying for the unlovable and menacing
Dorothy Day said something like “I really only love God as much as the person I love the least.” So just how do we love a bully child in our home, breaking up the home, injuring our family?
Understanding that love does not require us to like the person, to approve of him, is not a feeling, how do we find a way to love Donald Trump, as unlovable and menacing as he is.
We pray for him. This is the highest step. What do we pray for him?
:- Doug.
Point from this commons
Some words don’t speak to some people. So we need to get beneath words to what the words point to, speak and point from this commons.
:- Doug.
They cannot hear those words
You say there are no words to say the deep things. Maybe there are, and the ones you are speaking to cannot hear those words.
:- Doug.
Our responsibility at stake
If somewhere in here we see responsibility, our responsibility, what is at stake?
:- Doug.
You thought you were the one
In all your years you thought you were the one
From here it’s otherwise: one life, just life
:- Doug.
A haunting song
Choose a haunting song, borrow its point of view, and its beat or rhyme for your story.
:- Doug.
Story ending in 300 years
Tell a story whose ending is told in the 300-year grandchild elders’ lives.
:- Doug.
Wild unwanted places?
How do we determine what our message is and ought to be?
—Prophecy: what message do you resist?
—Wild: what has driven you to wild unwanted places?
:- Doug.
Footprints in the Windsm # 1942–Coronavirus: Oldsters reaching out
Footprints in the Windsm # 1942
Saw a news story last night about youngsters playing music and singing on videos for oldsters. It triggered for me stories I had seen about prisoners recording bedtime stories for their children, and about grandmothers tutoring children half a world away. Our elders in isolation could do similar things, spelling parents from home schooling tasks, perhaps. Telling stories of how things were in the past (reminiscent of The Foxfire books), recounting the library that each oldster is. Recordings of these could go in the family and community archives.
Please pass it on.
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Draw pictures, elders!
Help us draw pictures of some elders active 300 years from today. Of what are they made? What do they wear? What are they doing? What colors are they? How do they move in doing the work of eldering? Why do they feel called to elder? What do the people around them look like? How do people treat them? What physical characteristics do they have? Hair, eyes, hands, brains, hearts?
:- Doug.
Concoct a dilemma
Can we concoct a story for the grandchildren’s grandchildren right now? Give the first character your middle name. How would we describe the first character? The second? What will they do? What dilemma will they face?
:- Doug.
Let the younger ones see
Let the younger ones see how you do your eldering so they can see what they want to do when it is their turn.
:- Doug.
Help us find projects
We can ask others to think of the grandchildren’s grandchildren. We can bring our attention to bear. We can ask each other to get busy with us. To help us find projects for the grandchildren’s grandchildren.
:- Doug.
Farthest back in your family tree?
Who is the person farthest back in your family tree whom you know or know about? What was memorable about them? Whom do you want to be to your grandchildren’s grandchildren?
:- Doug.
So few elders so many old?
Why do we have so few elders among so many old people? What would you have to unlearn to be an elder for your grandchildren’s children?
:- Doug.
Today to help them get it?
What do you want for your grandchildren’s grandchildren? What can you do today to help them get it?
:- Doug.
A story remembering project
A story remembering project. What can we do to engage the grandchildren? Could you grab a grandchild or two and tell a story? What’s your secret for telling stories to your grandchildren, for getting their attention? If it is difficult, let’s come up with some ideas of how we might get their engagement? What did your grandmother do that got you listening?
Maybe when you are obliged to stay home, you could get on a video conference with some home school kids and do this.
:- Doug.
