A One-Minute Elder
WHAT IF IT’S OVER? PART 1
WHAT IF IT’S OVER?
One Elder’s View
You and I may need to confront something most people don’t even want to think about.
Not politically.
Existentially.
I’ve been sitting with another possibility lately. Not a theory. Not some dramatic headline. A real possibility. In fact, it might now even be a probability.
A possibility is a “could be,” a probability is a “shall be.”
What if this country, this culture, this organizing context called the United States, is entering the last stages of its existence?
I’ve lived long enough to stop believing that anything human-made is permanent. Nations aren’t permanent. Economies aren’t permanent. Political systems aren’t permanent. You and I, everybody, are not permanent.
Everything I’ve observed follows the same pattern:
beginning, middle, end.
Phenomena arise. They stabilize. They fragment. They disappear.
Egypt. Greece. Rome. The Aztecs. The Incas.
Gone.
In the last 100 years, The British Empire, The Soviet Union.
Nazi Germany. Yugoslavia.
Poof.
The names remain. The ruins remain. The stories remain.
But the phenomenon itself ends.
Why would we assume we’re exempt?
One of the great human delusions is believing the current arrangement is fixed. Guaranteed. Durable. But I’ve come to know existence doesn’t work that way.
As far as I can tell, the universe itself operates phenomenologically. Everything appears, persists for a while, changes, and eventually dissolves. Every single thing.
Nothing lasts. Impermanence is absolute, unconditional, forever true.
Nothing lasts. Nothing. Not one thing.
Not relationships.
Not institutions.
Not cultures.
Not nations.
Not mountains.
Not me.
Not you.
Distrust. Fragmentation. Loneliness. Institutional exhaustion. Ideological extremism. Economic fear. Technological destabilization. And for me, closer to home, the palpable rise of antisemitism and ageism.
We live in a population increasingly unable to distinguish reality from manipulation. Truth has lost its integrity.
Looking from this Elder’s perspective, it definitely feels like it’s breaking apart. When the original loses integrity in its foundational structures, when they are no longer present, it becomes rubble.
I’m not saying America disappears geographically. The land remains. The buildings remain. The highways remain.
But the phenomenon called “America” — its agreements, coherence, assumptions, identity, and stability — feels like it’s breaking apart right in front of us.
As an Elder, I’ve been through hundreds of these beginning, middle, and end cycles. But now that the likelihood of an “end” is nigh, I’m not having my usual reactions. More, much more curious than distraught.
As an Elder, I’ve learned that breaking apart the pieces always happens at the end of a phenomenon is revelatory. When it breaks apart, that’s when insights and findings occur.
A breakdown uncovers what was unsustainable all along. The ending uncovers the hidden gene of self-destruction beneath.
I also noticed that when something starts falling apart, I have stopped asking:
“How do I preserve it?”
A phenomenon can’t be preserved. It must go out of existence. It’s cosmic. It’s universal. It’s unchangeable.
So, I started asking:
“What was actually holding it together in the first place? What was core? Destroyed the core?”
Fragmentation reveals the truth underneath.
And perhaps this moment is doing exactly that.
Maybe what we are witnessing is not simply political decline.
Maybe it is the end of a particular civilizational story.
NOW WHAT?
And if this ending is probable, the real question is not:
“How do we get back?”
The real question, my Elder question, is:
“What is now required of me?”
That’s the question I am living with now. A question I can no longer avoid.
Who will I be, what will I do, what is required of me now, when America will not be America anymore?
My answer to this question is Thursday’s coming on Part 2, One-Minute Elder, What If It’s Over.
But before I post, what’s your answer: “Who will you be, what will you do, and what is now required of you if America isn’t America anymore?
Restack it.
Copy it.
Paste it.
Have the conversation.
Elder does not spread through advertising.
It spreads through recognition and conversations.
One person sees another and says:
“There’s something here we need to talk about and probably don’t want to.”
THE NEXT EVOLUTION HAS ARRIVED
The culture has spent decades trying to extend youth while neglecting the
development of wisdom.
That model is breaking down.
The next evolution of the Contemporary Elder Institute is not a redesign.
It is the future in action.
Yes, Melissa, it seems that you and James are setting up Part 2 perfectly. The timing couldn't be any better. The opportunities for Elders are expanding. And for your work on the value and possibilities of grandparenting, you are lining up your role for the future exquisitely.
James, that is what's needed. You're fullest, unadulterated self-expression. It sets up Part 2 of this two-part series brilliantly. When you become the author of the future, then life is yours.