Things you can do at 92 when you're Pete Seeger

Here I am sitting in my casa in Phoenix, Oregon watching some You Tube clips of 92-year old Pete Seeger walking in the crowd of protestors at Occupy Wall Street. Last night Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and a few other musicians did a short impromptu concert there. The crowd was singing This Little Light of Mine and We Shall Overcome, songs that Seeger helped to popularize during the anti-war and civil rights protests of the Sixties.

That was 50 years ago. Some of us have been waiting for a long time. It seemed that the U.S. populace was lulled into stupification for so many decades. But finally here we have a bona fide popular uprising. Hallelujah. Long time coming. It's impossible to know what will come of it, but as Occupy Wall Street protests continue, it does my heart good. I feel my cynicism melting a bit, exposing how deeply I long for real, positive change to take place in this country. Starting with a radical change in the power and structure of corporations and the terrible corruption of Congress.

That phrase I don't know anything about art, but I know what I like comes to mind when I think about politics. I don't know much about politics but I know what I like. I like peace and ecological diversity. I like it when people have plenty to eat and when they enjoy life and each other. On this earth plane, it seems that those simple riches can involve a terrible amount of struggle. I rejoice that so many people are inspired to stand up for change.

Take a look at the crowds that are gathering at Occupy Wall Street, and notice the white heads among the younger folks. That is real sage's play in my book. Like Seeger at 92, an elder with decades of commitment to cultural change.

I really enjoyed what journalist Chris Hedges had to say about various revolutionary movements he witnessed firsthand and how he views the current Occupy Wall Street movement. It's moving. I'm moved. Are you? What's your take on this popular uprising that we find ourselves in the midst of?

New Year, New Moon, New Moment

Happy New Year--again! Now we've entered the year of the rabbit, according to Chinese astrology. It is predicted to be a more peaceful year--ah may that be so in both the outer and inner worlds. I always feel surfeited with new years because I have 3 of them in my world. To begin with, there's January 1st, then the Chinese New Year, and finally the Tibetan New Year or Losar, which for who knows what reason never coincides with the Chinese New Year. This year, Losar is on March 5th. So I will continue to be in the new year mode for awhile.

It's the middle of the night here, and I woke up thinking about quite a number of things, including two wonderful books I read while I was in Hawaii recently, which I want to write about here. My mind was also full of my fundraising efforts for A New Wrinkle, ideas about costumes, staging and script changes I want to make, and some public events I'd like develop to catalyze support and fundraising. It was obvious I should get up out of bed and here I am. It's a wonderful time to be awake because it's so dark and still everywhere.

During the past 2 weeks, I've been sending out fundraising appeals for A New Wrinkle, my musical revue on aging, which debunks stale ageist stereotypes and promotes a vivid age-positive perspective. I sent out a letter via snail mail, and then had fun adapting it to send out via a program called Mail Chimp, which I really enjoy playing around with. I invite you to take a peek at what I created.

I was delighted to receive a donation of $1,000 from a kind individual philanthropist a few days ago. Then some smaller contributions arrived from other folks who believe in the uplifted vision of aging that A New Wrinkle portrays. I feel encouraged by this support. My current fundraising goal is $15,000 which will cover stage production and filming of A New Wrinkle.

We've made some changes to the Sage's Play website. Now the lyrics for all 12 songs in A New Wrinkle are available there. We also have installed a DONATE button that allows visitors to give a tax-deductible contribution online or learn how to do so by snail mail. Be an angel and take part in the adventure as we create a new vision of aging in our society! Your contribution is most welcome and needed!

(At the website you can also subscribe to receive my newsletters, which usually appear monthly.)

The two books that have so mesmerized me recently are A Simple Habana Melody by Oscar Hijuelos and Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier. They were books I happened to find on the shelf of the house I was visiting in Honolulu. Both are gorgeously written. I found it interesting that each book described their main character's lives from the perspective of old age. I want to write more about both of these books, but not now, because this night has begun to move into early morning. I think I will take a bit more rest before greeting the day. And tonight, dancing! Tell me, what's new in your life?

The Making of an Elder Culture

In 1969, Theodore Roszak published a book that became a classic--The Making of a Counter Culture. Roszak's new book The Making of an Elder Culture takes another look at the boomer generation, 40 years later. Yes, the author tells us, the youthful boomers were idealistic, audacious agents of social change. And now in their maturity they have the opportunity to become an even more powerful force for change. "The final stage of life is uniquely suited to the creation of new social forms and cultural possibilities," Roszak notes. And he continues a couple of pages later, "If boomers can change the self-serving entrepreneurial and neo-conservative values that now dominate our lives,they will have made a historic contribution not only to their own society, but to the modern world at large."

Now this is a possibility I myself earnestly support. Of course, Roszak is not the first author to discuss the unique responsibility and opportunity that elders have to care for and nourish culture. Rabbi Zalman Schachter published From Aging to Saging in 1995. Reb Zalman said in that book, "Elders are not 'senior citizens' who get gold watches at retirement, move to Sunbelt States, and play cards, shuffleboard, and bingo ad nauseum. They are wisdom keepers who have an ongoing responsibility for maintaining society's well-being and safeguarding the health of our ailing planet Earth."

So at least in that instance, Roszak and Schachter are talking about the same thing--the job elders have to nourish, lead and harmonize. But the two of them are coming at it in such different ways. The Rabbi's focus is on spiritual eldering, encouraging elders to embody wisdom. Roszak is much more in his head. Of course, the world is large and there is room for both Schacter's spiritual eldering and Roszak's proposed elder insurgency.

I will not attempt to cover the cornucopia of Roszak's spirited intellectual examinations on the future of government entitlements, sex and intimacy in later life, the imminent revolt of female caregivers, the predicament of aging alpha males, visions of great elder housing, and a nod to ecology. He is a cultural historian. Your head will be filled with many thoughts, and you will wonder about some of what he has to say, if you are anything like me. I mean, he rejoices over the declining birth rate and growing elder population as an expression of population leveling. Maybe so, and what about the other dimensions of it? What does it say about how we feel about the future of humankind, what does it say about our collective heart?

I guess I prefer the Rabbi's style. But I would love to hear from any reader who wants to elaborate on Roszak's book's high points, bogs and wild surmises. Did you read it and love it? Or maybe you're a fan of the Rabbi, too. Do tell.

Yes, yes yes, I want the boomers to enact positive social change via counter culture part 2. Yes, yes yes, I want to see elders define themselves as wisdom keepers and embody that. Yes, I imagine how much can change for the better when elders become spiritual leaders, creative lights and pragmatic activists. Yes, most affirmatively so.

At right: Photo of Rabbi Zalman Schachter

Inspiration and Creative Ferment

"Your vocation is that place where your deep joy meets the world's great hunger." --Frederick Buechner

In January, I started to write a musical play on aging, titled A New Wrinkle. Being a somewhat naive/optimistic (choose one or both) woman, I guessed I would be done writing by June and be ready to go into production by fall. Ha ha ha, the Universe laughed.

I have never written a play before and the process has been and continues to be a wonderful learning experience on many levels. It turns out that writing song lyrics was the easiest thing. I've written some rather funny songs including "I Passed for Young" sung by an aging Barbie, "Sex after Sixty," sung by the cast ensemble, "Baba Yaga's Raga" sung of course by Baba Yaga, whose unconfined magic figures large in the play, "What Should We Do with the Rest of Our Lives?" a song about retirement/refirement, "Scintillating Secrets of the Older Brain" which was inspired by Gene Cohen's book The Mature Mind--and right now, I am working on a song about how grandchildren would act towards elders in a culture that recognizes the value of older people. I also am musing about writing a song about medicine or doctors or the health care system. I've written one scalding song, "Hip Hop Elder's Rant" which covers ageism, dismissing and warehousing elders, etc. And there are two choral pieces, one at the beginning of the play and one at the end. These pieces are lyrical and a bit mythic. There are a couple of other song fragments, one about gerontophobia, and a fragment of an old blues song by Memphis Minnie. Musicals usually have from 20-30 songs, so A New Wrinkle is atypical in that way. I am not dismayed by that because the play doesn't have to fit into the existing mold.

Many days and weeks have been like feeling around in the dark, something I am familiar with, but it's still uncomfortable at times. Where am I? Where is this going? Is there anybody/anything out there, or in there? What wants to happen here? Can I do it? Sometimes it calls for letting go and lying on the couch to look at the sky for awhile. Daydreaming.

The Muse can arrive unannounced or at inconvenient times of course, especially when you're dealing with a character like Baba Yaga. There's a great talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love" on TED about the imagination and creativity. You might like it. I sure did.

It's impossible to imagine the process of developing "A New Wrinkle" without Helpful People. I've been blessed with Helpful People, like my old friend Carolyn Myers, an award-winning playwright and humorist who is part of an improvisational comedy troupe called the Hamazons. What a combination of diplomacy, profound support and deft insights she has given me. "And you're so close," she said during the last two sessions we had. Hilary Tate, a woman with well-honed literary and theatrical awareness, has also been of enormous help to me. Melanie Marx, a friend and life coach with a bouyant expression of love and chi, has helped me with reframing old habits that used to dog my creative life. And I feel the love and support of so many friends and acquaintances who tell me, "I can't wait to see it!"

Gaelyn Larrick introduced me to Laura Rich, who arranges music for Warner Brothers. Laura is a beautiful woman, sensitive in so many ways, loving, artistic, filled with humor--and she believes in what I am doing with A New Wrinkle. Keep her in your hearts as she recovers from surgery. Laura is composing the music for the play. I am going to her place tomorrow to talk more about that with her. Another aspect of the learning.

Developing characters and a plot line, what a concept. Yes. Big learning curve. Lots of fun. Eureka! Magical, how characters and plot emerge, as if they were just hiding around the edges of what was already created.

The experience of writing A New Wrinkle takes place in the midst of creating Sage's Play, the artistic venture of which this blog is a part. For Sage's Play, I am planning to write a little book to accompany A New Wrinkle, or be read on its own, and will also develop some formats for seminars and talks. I will be developing a website soon at www.sagesplay.com.

I am about to join a group called Artist Network Conference which provides a supportive structure for artists in terms of coaching, planning and development and artistic breakthroughs. ANC developed 25 years ago and has chapters in several places. The website is http://www.artistconference.net/

For so many years, my creative life has felt rather isolated, and when I started to write A New Wrinkle, I began to pray that I would find a supportive creative community of other artists. ACN has appeared in answer to that prayer. I'll be attending a weekend orientation for ACN at the end of October and I am really looking forward to it.

P.S. Check out www.growingbolder.com a site with many interesting audios and videos related to aging. There is one audio of Gene Cohen talking about creative aging, which I found enjoyable.


Photo courtesy www.cepolina.com

Ageism in the Workplace

I'm a fan of Ronni Bennett's blog As Time Goes By.
http://ronnibennett.typepad.com/

Ronni's focus on political and social issues is very useful to any progressive older adult who wants to stay informed. Yesterday Ronni blogged about ageism in the workplace. This is not the first time she has discussed the subject. She is one of those older adults who was pushed out of a beloved job field because of age, so it is a subject she returns to. Check out her September 2nd blog on workplace discrimination.

I especially liked pro-active interview suggestions from Rick Gillis' book The Real Secret to Finding a Job, which Ronni included in her post yesterday. They are:

"Look your interviewer straight in the eye, don't blink and in your most pleasant, professional voice, ask:

• Does this company maintain a mixed-age workplace?


• How do you weigh the skills of younger and older workers in deciding whom to hire?


• How do you train young managers in dealing with subordinates who are old enough to be their parents and grandparents?


• Is my age an impediment to being hired at this company?"

Gillis maintains that asking some of these questions in an even, professional manner positions the job seeker as someone who is savvy and valuable. His website is http://www.rickgillis.com/

I have never encountered this type of ageism myself because as I've aged I worked in a family medical clinic, had my own healing practice and have worked part-time for the past 9 years for Medifecta Healthcare Training, http://www.medifecta.com/, an elder-friendly company where I help to write and produce educational materials that train caregivers of elders. But I know that ageism affects many older adults in limiting and demeaning ways.

Studies show that older workers have a lot to offer in terms of accumulated experience, capability and reliability. Not only that, but as the population ages, we will have workforce shortages, and need at least some older workers to continue to work. Many older adults have a financial need to continue earning, or want to contribute and participate through the workplace.
So older workers are qualified and reliable, and we need them in the workforce.

Yet ageism in the workplace is endemic, in spite of federal anti discrimination laws. Patronizing, condescending attitudes about older workers continue, and many older workers never get interviewed much less hired even though they are well qualified. Ageism in America, a report from the International Longevity Institute, describes ageism in the workplace (as well as media, health care and society in general). I highly recommend getting educated about ageism and challenging ageism when it shows up in your life, whether it's in the workforce, medical office, or retail store.

My new play has a little anti-ageism kit contained within it. Can't share those tactics yet, but when the play is done, they will be available for review, adaptation and real use. But don't wait till then to create some imaginative, nonviolent and skillful responses to ageism. Show up, and together let's make social change happen!
_____
Photo of nice dried up old apple courtesy www.cepolina.com

Thinking about Three Isms from the Sixties

Did you like this poster when it first came out? I did, and it turns out I still do.

I've been mulling over three isms that got going in the Sixties--racism, sexism and ageism. Yes, ageism is a word that was coined in the Sixties by Dr. Robert Butler.

A lot happened with racism and sexism--words that were associated with vigorous movements for social change. After all the consciousness raising, protests, marches, dialogues and confrontations, people understood what was racist and what was sexist. They got educated. There were words you shouldn't use and ways it was not right to act.

No education of that kind ever happened with ageism, not in the Sixties or in the 40 plus years since then. It's as if the word and the social issues it represents just went into hiding for decades. So people are still uneducated about what constitutes ageism. And that includes a lot of older adults, too. Some older adults seem unwilling to acknowledge ageism, or pretend it doesn't exist. With a growing older population, isn't it time for some positive change? I think so.

Ageism was one of the main issues that propelled me into writing the play I'm currently working on, a musical about aging. The play explores social attitudes towards aging, sexuality in later years, retirement, and the surprising secrets of the aging brain among other items. It is a piece of social change theater, in which stereotypes, issues and themes can be displayed, often with humor, and sometimes with a bit of an edge. I hope it will help people to incorporate new ideas and behaviors about age and aging into their lives and the world they live in. I'm interested in changing the current Decline Paradigm of aging, and all the stereotypes about older adults that accompany that paradigm. It's a matter of self defense to begin with. All those ads--"don't let old age catch up with you!" and so forth and on and on. Who needs it? Not me, and I'm guessing, not you either.

This time of life has tremendous value. Old people have tremendous value. That's my rant and I'm sticking with it. I would rant on but it is a very hot day and I am ready for a picnic in the park.

Appreciating the Happiness Factor

There are people who believe that happiness is the province of the young and that old people are sad and lonely. This seems to be another example of those strange and untrue concepts about beings of the older vintages. (ageism: prejudice against and strange stereotypes about old people)

In fact, a spate of recent studies confirms that people actually grow happier as they grow older, and that old people are the happiest adult age group.

I know I'm happier than I've ever been at any other time of my life. I feel much more relaxed and comfortable about being myself. I accept and love myself more than I ever did. I am more emotionally flexible and resilient (and am grateful that I am also physically flexible and resilient, too). I'm much less influenced by what others think. I am more calm and accepting. I appreciate life, people and events more, and at the same time, I feel more detached.

You can read more about the studies of happiness and age in this New York Times blog.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/happiness-isgetting-old/

The brain has something to do with it, of course. Now that researchers are finally paying attention to the aging brain they are making some exciting discoveries.

Scientists used to believe that we stopped producing new brain cells during adolescence. But now they've finally discovered that the brain keeps on producing new cells throughout life.

Psychologists used to think that cognitive abilities peaked in early adulthood. Unfortunately, a lot of people still believe this, though research shows that cognitive abilities actually peak in midlife or even later, depending on the person. There are so many examples of people in their 80s and 90s who embody this truth, people who create marvelous and original art, literature, philosophy, psychology and social activism in their later years.

The limbic system, which processes emotional experience, calms down with age. We are less affected by negative emotions and pay more attention to positive emotional experience. That certainly contributes to the happiness factor.

Researchers discovered that older adults use both hemispheres of their brain simultaneously. That's pretty interesting, isn't it? Powerful and holistic.

And let's not forget "dendritic density," the accumulated forest of dendrites from everything you've experienced and learned, all dancing and communing with each other happily.

All that adds up to mean that older people are capable of more complex, nuanced thinking and have great reservoirs of creativity.

If the subject excites you as much as it does me, pick up The Mature Mind by Gene Cohen, M.D., Ph.D. It's an inspiring read, full of fascinating research, interviews and cutting edge insights on aging and creativity.

I'm a fan of Dr. Cohen, who is very brainy, bighearted and also looks a bit like a leprechaun. As the founding chief of the Center on Aging at the National Institute of Mental Health, he interviewed and worked with thousands of older adults over a period of 20 years.

His upbeat perspective is a refreshing antidote to some prevailing attitudes about age. Here's what some authors have to say about The Mature Mind.

"Gene Cohen nails it: The brain can get better with age! With authority and warmth, he demolishes the myth of inevitable mental decline and explores how the brain expands and develops in the later decades of life."
— Abigail Trafford, author of My Time

"Cohen has coined the term 'developmental wisdom' to describe the emotional growth and wisdom that many adults acquire as they age. His book is sensible, useful, and hopeful—he is a developmentally wise man himself."
— Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia

"Gene Cohen teaches us that the rich possibilities of life—including the life of the mind—continue well into the latest of our years."
— Robert N. Butler, M.D., President and CEO, International Longevity Center

Dear readers, there you have it. Even though the culture suffers from an under-appreciation of the positive contributions and qualities of age, older adults are happy. Even though they experience various kinds of losses and limitations, they are happy. There's plenty that all of us can learn from this, I do believe. And plenty to appreciate about the marvelous way that we human beings evolve and grow over time.

First Time Journey in the Blogosphere

I like the word blogosphere because for some reason it makes me think of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea—traveling in a strange contraption into an exciting new world.

And that just naturally makes me think of child’s play, which continues to be marvelous at any age. People may say “that’s just child’s play” about something that is very easy to do. Sure, child’s play is easy-- guided more by imagination than by fixed rules. Remember that magical sense of wonder, when everything else faded back until nothing remained but gazing at the amazing shapes of clouds changing in the sky, or the pattern of fireflies in the dark, or the moment of throwing the ball into the air, or the smell of the garden near the old house after rain?

Sage’s play is very similar to child’s play. It’s just that there are years of lived experience stirred into the sauce. In the later years, if one is just lucky or chooses to make it so on purpose, there are moments or hours when time opens out, slowing down into the eternal moment as it did in childhood. Then, the inherent magic shows itself.

Old people with all their faculties quite intact thank you, can be childlike, spontaneous, free of conventional rules, absorbed in the magic of the moment. This is one of the unsung beauties of aging, and I want to sing about it some here.

Sage’s play can take many forms, from social change through creative expression, nurturing, mentoring, passing on the stories and the more invisible work of healing, integrating life experience and letting go.

I want to affirm the profound value of age and old people to individuals and society. I want to explore the benefits of creativity and wellness in age. I want to participate in changing our cultural perspective on age and aging to a happier, more real and respectful one.

That’s why I have named my blog Sage’s Play. Here's to making the most of the beautiful experience of being alive.

BONUS!
The Pew Research Center recently published an interesting study that describes how younger people view old age, what they expect from their own old age, and how their beliefs or ideas differ from the reality of older adults’ experience.

Generally, younger adults have unrealistic beliefs regarding the prevalence of memory loss, inability to drive and sexuality in age. In other words, older people have better minds, drive more cars and have more sex than younger people believe they do. (But I’m not telling you anything new, am I?) Fascinating.

http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/736/getting-old-in-america

P.S. Don’t buy into the decline model of aging! And if you don’t know what that means, stay tuned.