Spiritual Aging Roundtable
SPECIAL OPEN SESSION
Dear Spiritual Aging Community,
Welcome to our monthly roundtable where members of the Spiritual Aging Study and Support Group (SASS) share whatever’s on their mind for reflection and interaction with one another. Normally, this is an offering for paid members only.
Today, however, I’d like to give our 200 SASS members the opportunity to do an act of service by sharing something of value with the 2000 plus membership that constitutes the larger Spiritual Aging Community on Substack.
So today’s question is this. Beyond working with the study guide that runs weekly for individual reflection on your own, what do you get out of sharing the experience in an interactive setting such as this? I know not all of you post comments every time, but what does it mean to you to read what others have to say? I know that I learn so much from your take on things—sometimes validating, sometimes challenging. I love interacting with you—getting to know your stories and philosophies and your personalities. Knowing you ‘re there fosters connection, empathy and spontaneous bursts of wisdom.
How about you? Please participate in this act of affirmation and service simply by sharing your experience with the larger group?
I’ve learned that there’s no challenge I’ve had that hasn’t been faced by others…feel so less alone!
We're living at a time and in a place where the most important elements of human life are regularly dismissed or ignored by the powers-that-be. I'm talking about "liberal" or "cosmopolitan" institutions like Harvard or the N.Y. Times. What is dismissed? Well, things that sound like religion, unless it's made reframed as "spirituality." "I'm not religious but I'm spiritual," where "spirituality" can include just about anything one is enthusiastic about. Dreams and dreamwork are also dismissed. So is aging. I could go on and on, but I won't. Well, Carol has created a network, and written books, about Spiritual Aging, and she's told everyone that she relied on a thousand dreams to inspire her. That's enough to get her dismissed by the powers-that-be. Aging becomes "positive aging" and then described as activity and productivity, typically denial of age: I speak from experience at age 80 now. I'm also a dreamworker and Carol helped me publish a new book on dreams and age. I won't go on. I'm grateful to her and I'm sure readers of this post are grateful, too. I will only quote my first inspiration, Meister Eckhart (d. 1326) who said, "If the only prayer you say in your lifetime is 'Thank You,' that's enough." Carol, that's what I want to say to you: Thank You for what you do and for who you are. (Harry Rick Moody, San Mateo, CA)