Dec
18
As midlifers, asking your grandmother for wisdom is something you may no longer be able to do. But sometimes there’s just no substitute for the unsentimental, kind, but straight talk you want to hear. And although most questions put to Elders at the Elder Wisdom Circle on this free site most often come from younger folk, they happily to respond to anyone in need. On the other hand, if you are 60 or older and would like an opportunity to mentor, you may add your voice and your wisdom to the growing collective of over 600 cyber-grandmothers, with a collective life experience of 45,000 years.
The Circle has responded to over 100,000 letters to date, and has published a book, The Elder Wisdom Circle Guide for a Meaningful Life, complied by some 60 Elders and nine Elder groups across the US, more than fulfilling its dual mission of offering personalized elder know-how via email to anyone who requests it, and to elevate the perceived value and worth of the senior community. To this end, it’s gained recognition from prominent figures as diverse as Walter Conkrite, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, and Warren Bennis, chair of the advisory board of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University.
The Circle was founded in 2001 by a former financial services businessman who was inspired by his grandmother to want to make elder women’s wisdom available to any young person in need of it. It is a 501(c)3 all volunteer nonprofit organization, and invites donations, as well as the wisdom of any women over 60 who would like to volunteer her time and experience. You can read some of the archived email exchanges on the site. As it happens, this month’s featured letter is from a mother of a 15 year old. Though seemingly at a loss to comfort her daughter over the break-up with an 18 year old boy about to join the armed forces, the Elder – Aunt Molly – affirmed the mom’s intuition and actions. Wouldn’t that be nice to hear!
While advice to individual respondents over the internet is personalized, the way the is book is structured is itself instructive. As their experience is applied to topics as diverse as parent-child relationships, sibling rivalry, self-discovery, lasting love, career, aging and loss, responses to these issues are framed as a dialog between the Elders, leaving the net impression that that there is often more than one road to wisdom.
You can see and listen to Elder Frances Bay from their video
posted on the site.
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[...] – complementing the idea that the second half of adult life is a time of individual renewal. The Elder Women’s Circle is also a new twist of that “trend” – one that is as old as [...]