FootprintsintheWind.com

Might eldering, by keeping one contributing, especially contributing at higher levels, fend off crotchetiness and decrepancy?

:- Doug.

Maybe elders never were; it is time; we are the ones.

:- Doug.

Seems elders will have to be the ones to prime the thinking about building that future. First, what ought that future look like; second, how do we build it in? On the first question, if we use the outline Grow, See, Play, what does that mean the future could be, ought to be? The future is a matter of spirit-playfulness. Once we ask ought, we need to ask is it possible; then is it practical? Just what does practical mean in the face of it is absolutely necessary?

:- Doug.

Deeper, we need it to be about building the preferred future into the grandchildren.

:- Doug.

In what ways are you growing? In what ways does the world look differently to you from how it did a few years ago?

:- Doug.

We think we have limited choices: we are wrong.

:- Doug.

This is the lever long enough: What sort of humanity do you choose?

:- Doug.

Now that we’ve learned to keep on growing, to see bigger, and to play, we need to apply these things to the question: What sort of humanity will we choose?

:- Doug.

Eldering is in large portion a task of imagining. Imagining yourself into the grandchildren’s world, imagining a future discontinuous with the present culture.

:- Doug.

There are today few elders because we do not choose; few choose because we do not imagine.

:- Doug.

Past adult we need a different measuring stick. For instance, speed, ability to move fingers or juggle numbers, eyesight have no place. Insight to a larger world, spiritual unfolding, and mediating between numinous and mundane are examples of eldering. Measuring itself is inappropriate for elder.

:- Doug.

Elder is a step past adult.

:- Doug.

Eldering is a gift
much more
a dimensional work

:- Doug.

Whether or not we can converse with a grandchild-elder, we take upon ourselves the transcendence of ourselves.

:- Doug.

Beyond recounting
elders enrich experience

:- Doug.

Growth
a gift of the years
a task

:- Doug.

If you are going to help people with these conversations, you need to have them for yourselves. Note I did not say by yourselves. You need to have them with your loved ones; and for them. For it is a matter of life and death.

:- Doug.

What did you see in nature when you were growing up that you don’t see today? Fireflies? Bugs on the windshield? Monarch butterflies? People visiting on Sunday? People sitting on their porch? Kids studying bugs? Kids making up their own games in the neighborhood?

:- Doug.

Whenever two or three
elders are gathered there
am I the grandchild

:- Doug.

Crossing above borders
fertilizing beauty nourishing
butterflies

:- Doug.

Poetry gives us
fewer words
to say more

:- Doug.

Up to an age
we seek to add
perhaps multiply
Advancing we subtract
some may even hope to divide
In different ages and different ways
we grow

:- Doug.

The shay disintegrates to
take part in
next’s growing

:- Doug.