THE ELDER'S CLARION CALL: Your Role in a World That Needs Healing
The world needs Elder. I don’t mean Elder as older. There is a very real difference between the two.
The future isn’t coming—it’s already here. Right now. It’s everywhere: in our country, our state, our neighborhoods, our homes. It’s on every screen, in every relationship, and playing nonstop in our minds.
Do you feel it? Do you feel the increasing intensity, the foreboding, the mounting uncertainty, vulnerability, dread, distrust, resignation?
As Elders, we know our mission will never be fully accomplished. That matters, and yet paradoxically, it doesn't matter at all. What genuinely matters to Elders is engaging in life and aging with higher wisdom, profound self-understanding, and fulfilling our inherent purpose as cultural healers.
We Elders accept the truth of Johnny Rich's observation: "Inhumanity is part of humanity as much as suffering is a part of life. Cruelty is written in the human script." But so does benevolence.
Look around you. The predictable short-term future unfolding before our eyes is one where those who control the machines and networks will continue to concentrate wealth and power, deepening poverty, and fueling despair. A grim and all-too-likely future of rising inequality and human suffering is coming at us point-blank.
The trajectory of this future is unsustainable and deeply destructive, eroding our humanity. If this future continues unchallenged, the depth of suffering will intensify and expand, drawing us deeper into its toxic realm, where the toxins of despair, disconnection, and exploitation pollute the very essence of our being.
Elder is the Cure for Cultural Toxins
Elder is a way of being. There is a special presence, expansive understanding, and higher consciousness that constitutes an Elder. In a world saturated with toxins—fear, division, speed, distraction, noise—the Elder does not react. The Elder perceives, pauses, and responds. The Elder cleanses by presence, by clarity, by courage.
The Elder is the antidote to the toxins in the systems, the inherited traumas, the inner voices that say, “not enough,” “not now,” “not me.” Elders don’t just eliminate the toxins, they transmute them into wisdom, self-awareness, and legacy.
When real elders are present in a culture, healing becomes possible. And when healing becomes possible, another future becomes possible.
Why Elders Are Uniquely Qualified
Elders have traversed the seasons of life and know suffering intimately. We've each experienced personal loss, failure, physical decline, and the challenges of navigating an ever-changing world that is accelerating at light-speed. We've lived through the trials that define human experience. We know the real story about ourselves and, therefore, about others.
Our higher calling as Elders is to heal suffering—a calling that has existed for millennia. This calling is baked into our Elder archetype. We enter this knowing it's a "no-win" situation, but we fully engage with passion and purpose, consciously causing ourselves to continue expanding rather than contracting.
Life has stripped away our layers of arrogance, ego, and fear. As Elders, we are free to be, free to act, free to speak, free to feel, free from our past and its required identities. Free from our previous self-imposed limitations. Free of the political quagmire. Freedom without fear.
Unabashed freedom is the ultimate reward of being an Elder.
An Elder's presence brings calm; their words recontextualize suffering, loosening its tight grip.
Empathy is our greatest tool, a mental, sensory, and emotional connection, a shared experiential bridge, and a capacity to "recreate" another's feelings and spirit. You don't just understand intellectually but experientially what others are experiencing. The expression "I feel you" comes close. That's empathy, and it fosters deep connection and understanding.
This empathic connection enables us to see suffering not as a sign of failure or frailty, but as a shared human experience that calls Elders to bring forth our "healing" and "repair" powers. And in doing this, it continuously enshrines our eldership.
We possess the serenity to sit with another's suffering without being emotionally overwhelmed and the insight to offer wisdom rooted in our understanding. An Elder's presence brings calm; our words recontextualize and alter the relationship to suffering, loosening its tight grip.
Stepping away gives a different perspective. We help shift conversations from being about "you or me" to being about "it." Moving from the subjective to the objective is a fantastic skill set that Elders develop.
To earn your Elder's stripes,” healing yourself and the world becomes your daily mission. A mission that reshapes who you are and directs what you do in the world.
The Elder's Toolkit
Empathy is our greatest tool—a mental, sensory, and emotional connection, a shared experiential bridge, and a capacity to "recreate" another's feelings and spirit. You don't just understand intellectually but experientially what others are experiencing. The expression "I feel you" comes close. That's empathy, and it fosters deep connection and understanding.
This empathic connection enables us to see suffering not as a sign of failure or frailty but as a shared human experience that calls us to draw our "healing" and "repair" pistols from their holsters. And yes, we Elders know how to shoot.
We possess the serenity to sit with another's suffering without being emotionally overwhelmed and the insight to offer wisdom rooted in our understanding. An Elder's presence brings calm; our words recontextualize suffering so it loosens its tight grip.
Stepping away gives a different perspective. We help shift conversations from being about "you or me" to being about "it." Moving from the subjective to the objective is an amazing skill set that you too can develop.
When you purposefully move from Older to Elder, you know what you're signing up for. To earn your Elder degree, healing yourself and the world becomes a mandatory part of your curriculum.
THE WAY IT IS NOW—AND HOW IT CAN CHANGE
In today's culture, Elders are seen merely as older people, which has relegated us to the margins, with no speaking parts in society's narrative. Our wisdom, earned through decades of lived experience, goes unheard, overshadowed by obsessions with staying forever young, accumulating wealth without worry, and chasing "likes" in all its various forms.
The preference for what is new, sexy, and fast eclipses the depth and substance that we Elders bring—a depth rooted in reflection, patience, and a lifetime of lessons learned.
Take a moment to look at your world right now. How are you feeling? How does the future look to you? Is this the way you want it to be—to feel like a victim, more vulnerable, more afraid, more uncertain, with less control?
But here's the good news: the door is opening for Elders. Higher wisdom is the salve that provides relief, and people are beginning to recognize this.
My fellow Elders and I are writing a new narrative. There is now an audience hungry to hear it. A new storyboard has been developed, demanding attention. It's about Elders stepping forward to reclaim our rightful place as stewards of humanity's progress and caretakers of its spirit.
YOUR INVITATION
As this new narrative of Elder unfolds, we will no longer be seen as relics of the past, but as essential participants in shaping the future. Our deeper understanding of humanity, our sharpened conventional wisdom, and our throughputs to higher wisdom become resources for insight, guidance, and healing in a world hungry for meaning and direction.
We Elders are now sitting down at the scriptwriters' meetings and writing ourselves back into the play—not as background characters or momentary walk-ons, but as protagonists in more robust, compassionate, and enlightened lines in the script. The screen is ready, the vast audience is ready for what the Elders provide, but only an authentic Elder can play this role. We can’t just play Hamlet; we need to be Hamlet.
The burgundy stage curtain is opening. Elders know their lines. They’ve rehearsed for a lifetime and are ready for the play to begin.
The world needs healing. The world needs repair. The world needs higher wisdom to make better decisions and take value-based actions that are appropriate. The world needs to calm down. The world needs to remember what's truly important. We Elders know what the job is.
What would becoming an Elder mean in your life? Does the idea of aging as an Elder, growing old with purpose, insight, and wisdom, awaken a deeper calling within you?
Now is the time to rise. Let’s engage in this conversation—one that has the power to reshape how we age, to redefine the path of growing old, and to ignite a movement that transforms the future for generations to come.
Where do you stand? Are you ready to answer the clarion call of elderhood? What aspect of our struggling world most calls for your elder wisdom?
Tell me your thoughts below—let's begin the conversation that heals.