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What Is An Elder?
People will often throw one size fits all ‘’çollective’’ solutions at you, and half the time try to ram them down your throat, but hardly anyone will say that you might have to wander into the forest alone and meet all kinds of strange and mysterious forces there, and overcome all kinds of tests and challenges, and then find a treasure that is hard to attain and then try and find a way to make a return to the world like Joseph Campbell said.
— Jon Wilson
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…Reflections on Elderhood
In my elder years I no longer seek approval, praise, or sentimental affection by bending to others and their will for me. Instead I stand in my strength with my values and principles, right or wrong. You see the rightness and the wrongness will work itself out, but the strength is what creates vitality.
In doing so I become a support for some and a challenge for others. My life is scattered with the chards of broken relationships of those who were challenged by me and and who could not abide my values and principles. An elder should perform such a service for them that they might find their own strength, just as the breeze challenges the sapling.
My father was such for me and I was angry, disappointed and frustrated with him. But because he stood firm, even though at times he was wrong, he challenged me to…
