Posted 10/18/2008 - 02:15:30pm by strider1957 in Portland Community College
Hey Everyone,
Welcome to the Encore Portland Community College Discussion Board. I am Samuel Turner, your host moderator and I look forward to your input, comments and sharing.
I can run a Discussion Board but the quality of this board will be up to you. I hope you will enjoy it, will participate and together we will have a rich experience.
So let's begin with an introduction. Tell us who you are, something about your interests in the field of Gerontology and either what you do, or would like to do in the field of Gerontology in the near future. What kind of issues are you most interested in?
Peace,
Samuel
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
54+40 or Fight
I have lived a purpose-driven life (at the workplace) since 1962. I do not entirely recommend it, as it can involve a highly erratic income flow, difficulty finding the "next right place," and a measure of grief from one's adult children. But still.
Currently I’m looking to help mobilize folks of 50+ to move away from just “letting the days go by” (water flowing underground), and move toward the social sector. It is as a means of finding meaning, of finding “a life and not just a living” if you know what I mean. I choose to do this in Portland, a town rich in networked social-sector activity and possibility. A town too that knows it has much yet to do toward realizing its potential.
A small side trip: Some years ago a worthy foundation (whose name I have forgotten) set out to find and learn from and about “the most effective high schools in America.” Their search method was ingenious: they asked other high schools to recommend the schools that they thought were most effective (couldn’t nominate yourself). The researchers developed a list of a hundred, worked up a bunch of protocols, sent out surveys, and made visits. Good social scientists, they were interested in the Big Ideas, and then of course in how they might be implemented, and what was called for in the way of support: they sought Findings. As a minor sidelight they discovered that every one of their respondents, every one, said, “But you know, we’re just getting started.”
And if that does not provoke you sufficiently, check out Capturing Experience (http://cil.templecil.org/), from Philadelphia’s Center for Intergenerational Learning at Temple University, and Coming of Age, (http://comingofage.org/), one of the Center’s partners.
Let us go, therefore, and do likewise (Luke 10:37).
A Life Worth Living
Hi David,
Thanks so much for your input. I really like your principle of "finding 'a life and not just a living'." That's my present life in a nutshell today... but that is after 30 years of doing jobs I didn't like... a whole chain of disaster remediation, making bucks rather than living thoughtfully.
I had to get sick, be thrown quite literally out of life before I made the necessary changes and began following what made my heart sing. Having just begun my second half following as you said "a purpose driven life," I wonder if you'd tell me a little bit more about your experiences.
You said: "I do not entirely recommend it, as it can involve a highly erratic income flow, difficulty finding the "next right place," and a measure of grief from one’s adult children. But still."
For me, the but still is really important. Today's job market and way of doing things is becoming more erratic all the time, regardless of what you are doing. So to my way of thinking, we ought follow our bliss anyway. Better happy with an erratic income that miserable with one. I also have adult children who think I'm a bit crazed (and they would be right) but they are deep into their own "vanilla" jobs so I don't spend a lot of time being concerned about what they think. They are going to think (I hope) whether or not I'm working or not.
So... thanks for responding and I look forward to hearing more bout the "but still" aspects of a liofe worth living.
Peace,
Samuel
a life worth living
Samuel,
When I read about your accepting the moderator position I went to your profile page to find out a little about who you were. What an astounding story.
If you did not have a wonderful face with character shining through – which you have – the bio could be another Roswell tale .... but it isn't. But brother that is one strange way to be called; Paul just got struck blind, briefly as I remember. And my sincere compliments to your wife who perforce was taken on the ride.
So when I read your bio I immediately decided I had to write mine. Lord knows when I will have time for that, but I think that when I begin it its first words will have to be, "Unlike Sam, I did not even know I had a calling -- and there surely was no drama to it. I simply decided, as a sophomore in college, that I knew I wanted to be a teacher."
The quick continuation to "But still" that you ask for is, "But still, I would have it no other way.”
A longer partial response might include:
* My adult son, a Marine Captain now in civilian life, is the kind of man who deserves the love and the awe we all feel for him, carries it all with amused grace, and takes care of business, family, most of the cooking, and himself. HE most likely is pretty sure I'm crazy or at least beyond understanding because I appear to be so accepting of my lack of real income. He perhaps confuses my outward appearance of acceptance and my evident joy with a lack of interest in surviving financially as well as spiritually. But hey man, I'm pedaling as fast as I can.
* My adult daughter is who I would like to be when I grow up.
• I do not have "an Encore career," but a continuation of what I've been trying to do ever since before I even knew I was trying to do it. (If one wanted to be technical it could be said that I have an Encore job, currently unpaid. My "career trajectory" staggers forward [ck out LinkedIn if you want to see David-in-dress-up], but I am no longer connected with the education of children or their teachers, at least directly.)
But still.
Until we type again, take care,
David
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidzuckerman1" ><img src="http://www.linkedin.com/img/webpromo/btn_viewmy_120x33.gif" width="120" height="33" border="0" alt="View David Zuckerman's profile on LinkedIn"></a>