FootprintsintheWind.com

The moments of life are more precious
To me now than when I was your age
So may we use them to carry valuable conversation?

:- Doug.

The more one knows the harder it is to be adamant about the best option.

:- Doug.

Elders invite eldering.

:- Doug.

Shout twice, leave. Invite higher remembering. Invite still others.

:- Doug.

Remember yourselves, remember your higher calling. Pay no attention to the tinkling bell laughing at truth and play. Pay no attention to the rock throwers, nor to the tempting things to eat or distract. Live, engage.

:- Doug.

Assimilation needs attention and intention. It occurs not even primarily in one person’s head, but between and among living beings. Here we need to attend.

:- Doug.

Some academic fallacies, and sub-fallacies: Because we (the colleges) are the seat of learning, we are the seat of credentials—all credentials. We are the seat of all learning.

Everything that can be known can be given in a lecture. Everything that can be known is known.

There lives among these fallacies the danger of academic hubris—that we are the ones who know it.

There is no room for experience, nor for art, nor especially in our culture, for betweens and amongs: the group mind.

Therefore everything to be known can be known and processed inside a single (human) brain. Thus the way to “teach” is by depositing.

There is no room for interplay.

:- Doug.

Open Space is not an add-on; it is an essential part. We sometimes have an unstated assumption that after “Teaching” a natural process takes place in one person’s head, and this process cannot be—should not be—purposely initiated nor done between and among people. Examine that proposition.

:- Doug.

The grey falcon circles and thousands of miles
even thousands of eons
condense instantly to a point

:- Doug.

What if conversation were how we eldered the generations?

:- Doug.

Does everyone elder in some way?

:- Doug.

How do you elder?

:- Doug.

Do you elder?

:- Doug.

How shall we elder our many tribes?

:- Doug.

Eldering is conversational art.

:- Doug.

I do not sell Wills. I counsel new
Ways for elders to see & hear their tribe
From ways come good

:- Doug.

Your question is clear evidence
You are seeking something you
Do not see. Maybe listen a new way to see

:- Doug.

What are the roads which lead from
The divine to the human in this age we
Think is scientific, rational, logical? We
deny—or hope—these roads, their source
Do not exist but this yard whistles to us
And we
Go about
Mostly missing
Our invitations

:- Doug.

Eldering is using good heads and good hearts for better generations, for a next 20 years that matters.

:- Doug.

Sometimes the adult children, in their care-giving, are the elders.

:- Doug.

Eldering is bringing the rest of us to whole-making.

:- Doug.

Is your only value to your grandchildren your wallet? If not, then you ought to think about the better gifts you have to give—your wisdom and spirit and approach to the world.

:- Doug.

There is whole-making when we get the conversation going in even the smallest degree, such as by inviting more talk about emergency medical.

There is whole-making when we converse about eldering, about the needs of the next generations, about what we can do for the good of the tribe.

Then let us query each other about the things we think need to be done in the world, and what our grandchildren are about in their lives, what gifts we have to give to them and the world—especially beyond money.

Here is a conversation with nuances toward eldering: taking a larger, longer view. It means engaging children and grandchildren now.

:- Doug.