The Amazings: Connecting on Purpose

The number of Primetimers using social media websites like Facebook grew 150 percent from 2009 to 2011, suggesting that we, the older generation,  doesn’t want to become disconnected from the world of the younger ones. That’s one of the reasons I’m active daily on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook where I have over 2400 friends. I stay connected and learn a lot about younger people, which hopefully helps me stay ‘young’, at least at heart.

Unlike some other cultures I’ve mentioned in this blog, such as those of Japan and Italy, our American culture has fostered an unhealthy separation of old from young. Many negatives have resulted from this, not least being that many of our young people have little respect for the elderly, for history or for tradition. When good traditions and lessons from the past are sacrificed on the altars of change and newness, society crumbles. With recent events such the Aurora “Batman massacre”, who can deny that our society is crumbling?

So, I was fascinated to learn recently (in World magazine) that a unique startup in London is helping two (or three or four) generations stay connected by enabling seniors to share, not photos and posts, but good old-fashioned skills and knowledge, offering classes that highlight their amazing stories or skills to younger generations. Brilliant!

The venture is called The Amazings, and its website explains why: “An Amazing is anyone who has retired or is about to retire who has something interesting they think they can turn into an activity. It could be anything from having lived in Hackney the whole of your life, knowing how to make jam, to owning a barge on the River Lea.” The organization’s staff of three handpicks seasoned citizens who are both knowledgeable and personable, then schedules classes where they can teach what they know to others and make a little money. They get 70% of all income from the classes, which cost £15-25 ($25-40).

For example, “Introduction to Crochet with Bernadette” – a woman with short, snow-white hair who started crocheting when she was 5 – teaches for two hours in Broadway Market. Another class, “Cook Hungarian Food with Jimmy”, offers six attendees the opportunity to cook alongside a professional chef who has worked for Hilton Hotels & Resorts and cooked for the late Queen Mother. Other options include dance, drama, and 1950s hairstyling classes; tours led by a local history expert; and a foraging walk where participants prepare their own lunch from edible plants they’ve collected – “Wild Food Foraging with Terry”.

The Amazings launched last August, and its services for now remain limited to London. That’s a pity: although some U.S. organizations, like ReServe and Civic Ventures, help baby boomers and retirees find jobs in the nonprofit and public service sectors, a networking hub like The Amazings could fill a niche by connecting the young with their elders’ wisdom, and providing much needed purpose in the lives of the Primetimers.

I can see churches starting programs like this … who’s up for it?

Live Life to the Plus+

An Italian Journey

Last October Jenny and I spent a month in Europe, including a memorable 2 weeks in Italy. We absolutely fell in love with the country: Venice, Cinque Terre, the Amalfi Coast and especially Tuscany – and its people.

We hope that was only the beginning of our “Italian Journey”.

Then last Christmas, I received a special gift: a book written by a friend – “An Italian Journey” by James Ernest Shaw (Jim). This is a great read – I highly recommend it!

Jim is my age, yet a couple of years ago he spent 7 weeks riding his special bicycle (collapsible, so he could take it on the plane), towing a trailer (with his stuff) all over Tuscany, stopping off at local farms for a week at a time to help pick olives. What a guy – my hero Jim!

Jim and I share ancestry in Cork, Ireland and a love of everything Italian. Interestingly, to my knowledge neither of us have any Italian “DNA”.

But this wasn’t just a fun adventure (or a great workout!) for Jim. Neither was it simply to satisfy his hunger and thirst for great food and wine … and everything else Italian.

It was a journey with a purpose: he wanted to better understand ‘what is it about Italy and Italians’; why was Tuscany the birthplace of the Renaissance (not Ireland!); why are Italy and Italians so special.

La Dolce Vita – yes we know Italians have a special zest for living. But even Italians don’t know the answer to the question ‘Why?’

So, Jim set out to discover ‘why’ by eating with them at their kitchen tables, by working alongside them. So day after day Jim picked their olives. They began treating him like family and he began seeing their unique human quality that attracts people to Italy and keeps pulling them back again and again. Yes, we can’t wait to go back – perhaps to pick olives, if not to cycle the entire way!

Now, I won’t spoil it for you by telling you the secret, the answer to ‘why?‘ – you have to read the book yourself! I will, however, give you a glimpse of Jim’s wonderful writing, and one of his insights, which is particularly poignant for this blog and our shared interest in healthy aging.

The first chapter begins with an enticing picture, which slowly comes into focus as Jim approaches an old farm; he sees an old woman adjusting the carburetor of a motorbike – that got my attention right away. Impressed by the strength of her movements, “She looked as if she had been taking care of herself and her farm all of her eighty-plus life, and had no intention of turning either job over to others… she became for me an icon of healthy productive old age – a lasting memory of what a life well spent looks like.”

A few pages later Jim paints this picture, as, riding along in the cool of the evening, he approached three men from behind “who were walking not with a purposeful gait, but with the ambling cadence of friends engrossed in conversation.”

As they were turning their heads toward me, I called out “Buonasera”. Their age stunned me. They were in their seventies, but they were walking as if they were fifty. As they, in lyrical unison, sang out “Buonasera” a chill surged up my spine. What I had been sensing but not seeing was right there in front of me – old people. Tuscany was full of old, hard-working, story-telling, life-loving people. The images of all the old people I had biked past in the last week flooded my memory – old people still full of life – still walking up and down the roads of Tuscany sharing life with their neighbors. The camaraderie of these three old people, I was convinced, was the what of Italy that would lead me to the why. Instantly my thoughts about old people changed. I had always dreaded getting old, but these people and the others I have seen all over Tuscany rewrote the story. Old-age suddenly looked good. It was as though an earthquake of perception had swung my compass from “North” to “True North”. I didn’t want to get old all of a sudden, but I no longer feared old age. The question at that moment was not whether I had the wealth, but whether I would have the health to be old. My last years should have the vibrancy of these three people. Some might feel they were poor and to be pitied, but to me they looked blessed, sharing the good of their lives and the food they have grown with the neighbors. My concept of stewardship expanded to the very bodies we inhabit. The giftedness of life, of our bodies and our minds, in that instant of truly seeing these three vibrant people, left an imprint that has not faded. And in seeing the giftedness of life, I became acutely aware of the Giver of the gift and that’s my responsibility for thankfulness.

What a pretty picture! The way it’s supposed to be, but simply isn’t in most of the western world. As Jim put’s it:

“I realized that I was seeing a lot more old people in Italy than I do when I bike around America. To see as many elderly people in the United States I would have to be visiting nursing homes and hospitals. Rarely in America do I see old people walking along the streets, working in the fields or gathering in the town centers or leaning on their back fences talking to the neighbors. Our supposedly easy lives have spawned an ugly old age. American life, especially for the elderly, struck me at that moment as soft, segregated and detached – old people spending their golden years watching life instead of living life and giving life to their friends and neighbors. I was sensing that life in Italy is harmonious. Old, young, middle-aged, rich, poor, all living together – no ghettos of conformity. Italians still live in communities and old people are venerated.”

Right on Jim!

So, how do we make our golden years golden? How can we be good stewards of the gift of life? How can we Live Strong, Live Long, Die Short, Die Empty? That blog post of mine offers some ideas and resources. Hopefully my life provides some inspiration to those who know me.

My best recommendation is to buy “An Italian Journey” by James Ernest Shaw – I have both the paperback and kindle versions. Read the book, join Jim and me in our state of awe over everything Tuscan, and learn from Jim’s conclusions. You’ll be glad you did.

You can also follow Jim’s Backroads Bicycling as I do: www.facebook.com/ItalianJourney.

Then, Live Life to the Plus+!