Men,
Becoming older is not the same as becoming an Elder. Becoming an Elder is a work of culling our experiences and nurturing our traits of wisdom, patience, empathy, humor, mentoring, simplicity, and especially adaptability. We invite men who are 50 or older to consider stepping into their Elderhood. Some men in their forties feel called to Elder energy.
Societies call on Elders when things fall apart. Elders have had the opportunity to learn from their life challenges, losses, bereavements. Elders are closest to the ancestors and the threads of tapestry from the past with which to begin re-weaving the new order. Everywhere I look I see blind alleys as the political body debates the responses to economic melt down. As the solutions proposed are about consuming products and the question of sustainability is put off for the generations to come. As governments fall and new structures are up for grabs. As rational debate gives way to emotional intractableness in the guise of ideologies. As the middle class is threatened with diminishment and the poor are the first to be cut out of consideration.
My hope is with the young, who are facing these issues as they contemplate their careers in a new era. Some I have met are looking to a new model of economic and political realties that embraces simplicity and the wealth of a shared economy. From the "American Dream" to a "World Dream." Ghandi wrote "The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not enough to satisfy every man's greed." There is imj no utopia or certainty of enlightened deliberation in a democratic society. There is, as Greg Boyle puts it in Tatoos on the Heart --"Kinship..,,inching ourselves closer to creating a community of kinship, with God, this circle of compassion...no one standing outside that circle, moving ourselves closer to the margins so the the margins themselves will be erased....always hopeful that its time has come."
It is my hope that in dialogue with the Elders the Young will bring their energy, idealism and creativity to discourse with those who have weathered many years and who harbor the wisdom of the past, We are in the process of doing that beginning at the Elder Gathering on April 15 - 17 in Hyannisport, Cape Cod.
The weekend will start Friday evening with supportive sharing of our personal journeys into the challenges of becoming older. Saturday we will be speaking to issues of what an Elder is in MKP and issues pertinent to our roles. We will also look at projects that Elders might wish to initiate; such as working in nursing homes etc. The afternoon will be given to a dialogue with a nucleus of Young Brothers who are forming their own constituency. The evening will be a feast followed by merriment.
Sunday will wrap up business, touch on the uses of ritual and offer men the opportunity to become Declared Elders in MKPNE.
For further details you may ask to be on the Elder List, where you will be kept informed. To do so e-mail Bill Baue at bbaue@verizon.net. You may also contact me below and I will forward you a copy of the latest work-up of the weekend.
Step into your Eldership. Find your purpose at this time in your life.
With love and in service,
Jack Childs
Wily Cobra
Lead Elder N.E.
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