John W. Gardner and the Art of Self-Renewal
Looking back I see a California boy finding his way through life, endlessly challenged, surmounting obstacles, falling on his face, always studying, always trying, always wondering.
- John W. Gardner
John W. Gardner was born in Los Angeles, California in1912. He married native Guatemalan Aida Marroquin in 1934. They had two daughters Stephanie and Francesca.
An acclaimed educator and writer, John Gardner received many honours including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.
A former Cabinet Secretary, he helped launch Medicare and the Public Broadcasting System. In 1970, he founded Common Cause, a grass-roots nonpartisan group for citizen empowerment.
He joined Stanford University at the age of 77, where he continued to teach into his ninth decade.
When Gardner was in his mid 80s, he was asked to address a group of executives on Renewal. More than 30 years earlier, he had written the seminal book: Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society. Now, he outlines the qualities of self-renewing persons. Here are five:
1. Self-renewing persons view life as open-ended.
"Life isn't a mountain that has a summit. Nor is it, as some people suppose, a riddle that has an answer, nor a game that has a final score," Gardner says. "Life is an endless unfolding and, if we wish it to be, an endless process of self-discovery, an endless and unpredictable dialogue between our own potentialities and the life situations in which we find ourselves," he says.
2. Self-renewing persons make commitments.
"As you get a little older, you're told you've earned the right to think about yourself. But that's a deadly prescription," Gardner says.
Self-renewing persons are connected to the world around them. As the world changes they interact with it, and they change too.
You have to build meaning into your life, and you build it through your commitments. Self-renewing persons pace themselves, set priorities, and keep pursuing their best options.
3. They develop a sense of mutual dependence.
Says Gardner: "You come to understand that most people are neither for you nor against you; they are thinking about themselves."
Self-renewing persons care about their families, communities, and life everywhere. They are interested. They listen and they reach out.
4. They keep learning.
As you grow older, the things you learn are more complex: "You learn not to burn up energy in anxiety…. You learn that self-pity and resentment are among the most toxic of drugs. You find that the world loves talent but pays off on character," he says.
Self-renewing persons learn from life: their successes, disappointments, failures and mistakes. "We learn by growing older, by suffering, by loving, by taking risks, by bearing with the things we can't change," he says.
5. Self-renewing persons are future-oriented.
They believe in the future. By way of example, Gardner offers that Cervantes, Winston Churchill and Pope John XXIII were all tough-minded optimists who made significant contributions past their prime.
"You don't need to run down like an unwound clock. And if your clock is unwound, you can wind it up again," Gardner says. Motivation is the key to renewal. "There is no substitute for the lift of spirit and heightened performance that comes from strong motivation," he says.
Source: "Self-Renewal" by John. W. Gardner, in The Futurist magazine, Dec.1996.
Beating the Drum for Diversity
When 82-year-old Natalina Boselli was hospitalized recently her broken English made communication with health professionals difficult.
Natalina's situation is not unusual.
By 2021, adults 65 and older will form 18 percent of the Canadian population and include more than 200 ethnic groups, according to the 2001 Census.
In a recent report, The National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA) warned Canadian seniors who belong to minorities are in danger of being left behind when developing new policies and services.
Research suggests as people age, culture assumes an increasingly important role in their lives. For instance, in Ethnic Seniors and Healthy Aging, lead researcher, Sucy Eapen writes: "Culture shapes the senior's attitude to pain; ideas of comfort and well-being; conceptions of health and illness; notions of appropriate treatment, dietary preferences, and regulations; and verbal and non-verbal communication styles."
NACA recommendations relate to income, health and health care, family support and community services.
The report: Seniors From Ethnocultural Minorities is available at: www.naca.ca
Still Imagining a Better World
It used to be youth was the field of dreams: today retirement offers yet another chance to dream.
"The boomers will be the first generation to see retirement as a period where you can do something significant," says Marc Freedman, president of Civic Ventures and author of Prime Time (Public Affairs).
This is backed up by the Merrill Lynch New Retirement Survey (2004), which shows nearly 80 percent of baby boomers plan to continue working after the age of retirement - but in new ways and on their terms. For example, 42 percent want to rotate between work and leisure, while 56 percent dream of launching new careers.
Fifty percent of Americans age 50 to 70 want jobs now and in retirement that improve the quality of life in their communities (2005 MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures New Face of Work Survey).
But who's waiting for the boomers? Not the host of retired academics now pioneering post - midlife social entrepreneurship.
Take Frank Chew, 80, a psychologist, who worked at the University of Southern California for 20 years before retiring in 1990 as an administrator in the business school.
Now Chew volunteers with the American Red Cross. Working on the organization's Critical Response Team - he has served at 32 sites around the country tending to people affected by disasters - the Twin Towers, hurricanes, wildfires and plane crashes.
"You have to keep yourself active - your mind and your body," Chew says. "Maybe the best part of it all for me has been that I've met some terrific people, among my colleagues in the mental - health area and among my clients."
Following 32 years with the institution, William Miller retired in 2000 as a professor of mathematics at Central Michigan University and returned to the family farm at age 70.
Miller's first project was to plant a cornfield on a swath of land he had rented out for years. Using algebraic computations, he planted the field in the shape of the State of Michigan.
Last year, Miller took the project another step, building what he calls Michigan's Field of Dreams - a baseball field in the middle of a cornfield like the one featured in the movie Field of Dreams.
Now, as many as 1,000 people a year, many of them school groups, come to see the corn map, pick pumpkins, and take a ride on the tractor - pulled barrel train, he helped to build.
Miller and his wife have set no entry fee for visitors to the farm - many people come free.
"Don't get yourself wrapped up in something too demanding in case you want to get away," Miller says. "And don't worry about what you are getting paid. It's really about the quality of your life," he adds.
But some seeking "good work" find the doors closed.
That's what happened to Dorothea Glass, a professor of medicine from Philadelphia, who retired to Palm Beach County in Florida.
Back home after a few months of R & R, she was ready for work. Glass approached her local hospital with an offer: "Put me to work in a way that makes use of my experience and my passion for medicine, and you can have my services for free of charge."
The best the hospital could come up with was a new volunteer position - refilling water pitchers.
It's a case of cultural lag, explains James Birren in Psychology and the Aging Revolution: "The gift of long life has come so quickly in the 20th century that societies, institutions and individuals are surprised."
Eventually, Dr. Glass picked up a position at a newly formed free health clinic. But clearly, meeting people like Glass halfway will require putting an end to age - old ideas on retiring - essentially, reinventing retirement.
It won't be easy.
"The gift of longevity is behind the new shift in the way people think about retirement," Marc Freedman says. "Turning the situation around will require nothing less that a new generation of pathways, priorities, and policies," he says.
Source: "Academics Pioneer the Third Age" by Marc Freeman & Phyllis Moon in The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 29, 2005.
The Power of Friendship
Many studies suggest friendship can result in positive social, emotional and physical benefits in the lives of older adults.
Now Australian researchers have found a strong social network may be more important than family ties for survival in old age.
The study was part of a larger project designed to assess how economic, social, behavioural and environmental factors affect people aged 70 and older.
Participants were asked how much personal and phone contact they had with their spouses, children, other relatives and friends.
Lynn Giles and her colleagues at Flinders University in Adelaide monitored the survival of 1, 500 people living in community and residential care facilities over a 10-year period.
Those over 70 who had a strong network of friends were 22 percent less likely to die compared to those with the weakest social network, according to a report in the June issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
However, social networks with children and relatives had little effect on survival.
Why do friends appear to enhance our chances of survival? No one knows exactly - researchers are working to track the mechanisms involved.
Is it the optional nature of friendship? People tend to choose their friends based on common interests and mutual enjoyment in each other. Perhaps friends may contribute "social capital" - respect and mutual acceptance - someone to lean on.
In a separate study, Dr. Nina Chen at the University of Missouri found married and unmarried older adults, identified friendship as a key contributor to a sense of belonging.
One 73-year-old widower says, "Old friends are just like gold, and good friends are just like sunshine. They are special. Older persons need to have friends to support each other" (Journal of Extension, December, 2001).
More important than the number of friendships is the quality of the relationships.
Writing in the 16th century, Montaigne explained his profound attachment to a friend thus: "It feeds the spirit."
Wellness Information Tips
Research by Health Canada shows regular and moderate exercise can cut age declines in half and reduce the risk of all diseases by 50 percent, but only 14 percent of Canadians 65 and older are sufficiently active, according to the National Population Health Survey.
Dr. Sandy O' Brien Cousins of the University of Alberta gives reasons behind the finding in Ageism and Active Living, an easy - to - read, 6 - pager that offers strategies for action.
From Our Readers
Re "Grandpa Fosters Sense of Wonder" (AHB May, 2005): Eighty-year-old, Alex McKeague, retired scientist and father of five, gives "thumbs up" to Brian Swimme's new video:
"The Powers of the Universe" paints a broad picture of the evolution of the universe, which is terrifically inspiring. Listening to him speak, one cannot help but believe that a creative force is behind the evolution of the cosmos.
"We have used our creativity and imagination to bring about great material wonders and powerful civilizations. We can shift gears and take on the Earth project," Swimme says. Some initial steps include protecting habitats for endangered species and reducing the birthrate by giving women equal rights. Visit: www.brianswimme.org
- Alex McKeague, Ottawa
Spiritual Eldering
Rather than backing into old age with fear and avoidance, Spiritual Eldering invites us to discover and gather the wisdom of our life experience to enrich the present moment, face our mortality, repair and heal our relationships, and take an active leadership role in society.
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, author of Sage-ing and Age-ing, established the nondenominational program to meet the needs of elders because "every life matters immensely and every well-lived and completed life helps in healing the world."
- Evelyn Dilger, Cincinnati, Ohio
