- What is the role of Intergenerational Relationships within Leadership of a Self Organizing World??
- Convened by:: ShilohBoss
- Attended to by:
JeffAitken
ThomasArthur
RobertoMaestas
?
LesIhara
JosephMcCormick
?
FloydSheets
?
CarolynShaffer
- CONTEXT & OPENING:
Being that we are here acknowledging a growing awareness that we are truly in a self organizing world, one that seems to be making a confrontation of paradigm shift and reconsidering the structures within many aspects of life... what is the role of intergenerational relationships amidst this changing reality?
What is the relationship of intergenerational relationships and building a bridge from the old paradigm to the new one?
Perspective of all of us alive right now are part of a shared generation and change on the planet, how might intergenerational relationships and the distinct offerings of people in each unique 'age' they find themselves enrolled in the overall era we share.
- Story about other times and cultures acknowledging that the wisdom of the community was not known unless all ages contributed to the story. The honoring of connecting the wheel of life and joining all ages in relationship to be healthy and whole in our community and world. Sharing a sense that perhaps now more than ever we may need the wisdom of all people to come forth to connect and navigate through our current world reality.
- OPEN SPACE DIALOG:
- Story about being an advisor for graduate students and witnessing where they are in their life stage, discovering and developing so much.
" I see myself as a member of the bridge generation. I feel called to step into a mentor role"
"There has been a fragmentation of society. We are confronted with many issues of how to bridge gaps between the older/younger, cultural difference, masculine/feminine.
The media has kept us confused about the world"
There are stories that we have not been told about how good and beautiful life could be, consider Cuba,
- Story about supporting youth to see Cuba come back awestruck at how different life could be.
Don't believe the BS, Look for yourself. We need to learn from what has happened elsewhere
We need to consider succession and the difference between being an 'elder' or just being a senior citizen or an 'older' . If we are elders we show that not only are we older, we are also wiser.
Imagine a pyramid that has a segment of it that is darkened somehow, There has been a cultural loss a severing and a discontinuity amongst the relations between generations
In terms of building a bridge from the old world to the new world, " I want to learn from others and reweave the connection."
We need to both be reinventing things as well as gathering the experience of that which has come before.
- Story about living her recent move to Ashland and feeling very blessed and grateful for the many opportunities for intergenerational relationships. One time she heard a young adult speak out about the Boomer Generation, it deeply impacted her: "Boomers! Where are you?! We need you! You have things to offer! We need each other! You need us!We have things to exchange!" How meaningful that was to her. Nearly tears in eyes talking about it. It re-ignited the dream in her heart for the new world she believed was possible .
Seeing that the older generation has had a dream about the way the world could be and much work has been done and still much more work is required to manifest the vision of changing the world and making it a better place.
Seeing what the younger generations are here to carry out is a re-spark of life for many in the boomer generation. "A reawakening of the dream"
It is as if the generation that is older did so much to contribute to both the awakening of the world and its shift in paradigm as well as the damage that exists in the world now.
The Visionary Boomers have cultivated a particular soil and planted seeds and the new emerging adults are the growth of those seeds taking root and coming to fruit.
Account of what is being called the "Moses Generation & the Joshua Generation" likened to the Boomer generation and the young adults now. The Moses Generation had the dream and Moses lead them out of enslavement and into the desert. The Joshua Generation lead the people out of the desert into the promised land. Calling for a with drawing of power from the older generation and giving to the younger. Acknowledging the need to let the 'enslavement mentality" to die off in the desert before we can be lead into the promised land.
" I feel it is my duty as someone not of the boomer generation and not in the emerging generation of power to act as a bridge and use my standing to pass the power. I take actions that FACILITATE THE TRANSFER OF POWER to those that are not mentally enslaved. I see young adults coming on stage that are much more free from the enslavements and limitation of mind and heart- I want to find those from that generation that are capable and trustworthy of being empowered and pass the power onto them, as soon as possible."
- Story about how his willingness to transfer power allowed for the convener to be present and convene the session. His capacity and position saw & supported my leadership in the community and directed funding that sponsored my attendance.
A critical thing to acknowledge in this discussion is how much the context has changed. It is a totally different world.
THERE IS A TOTALLY NEW NERVOUS SYSTEM ON THE PLANET. - A NEW OPERATING SYSTEM
"I feel antiquated"
Raising questions about eldership.
Because of technology and cultural interface, never more than now can an older learn more from a younger than a younger could learn from an older.
Creating a context of TRUE MENTORSHIP, which is where we embody and demonstrate HOW TO LEARN and create an exchange where both the young and old learn together
- Story about engaging a small team of 'millenials' (20's gen) in his political office at the Senate. The process of intentionally experimenting so that everyone is learning within the frame of the work project that At the end of a successful project that was very satisfying all the boomers acknowledged that they learned more than they felt they had contributed to the learning in the group.
Show that together we can LEARN HOW TO LEARN
If we engaged in creating intergenerational mentoring relationships where everyone was learning it is one of the dynamics in the world that has a huge capacity for change. It has scale. "it is a true gift economy"
How did you open that experiment up?
There was a workshop on Intergenerational Relationships in the workplace. Someone circulated articles and they decided to all give it a try.
Within the dream of a more peaceful world from the older generation & What the Older brings to the table is the RESPONSIBILITY to embody and fulfill that dream.
" I believe that one of the things that is my responsibility of the older generation is to teach tolerance by being that change and modeling the behavior of peace & tolerance."
- Story about modeling tolerance with his son who wanted to go to Iraq and the father and mother did not approve, it did not align with there beliefs of being peacemakers. They practiced the model of tolerance and supported there son in there love and living of virtue.
The wisdom to understand our gift life has taught and live that value and virtue.
INTERNAL VALUES ARE TIMELESS
"Data only becomes meaningful and worthwhile when it merges with real virtues and values"- this is important to carry into the future
We must honor and trust with tolerance the incoming generation and see those that have a lot of energy and are gifted. "It is our responsibility to connect with those that have the energy"
GIVE THEM OUR PRESENCE: because of the establishment of all the many world wide practices of self-awareness we have created a field of human intelligence. the previous generations hace made it so that there is a MUTUALITY OF THE FIELD OF AWARENESS ON THE PLANET
all supporting this 'new world' to emerge
- CLOSING COMMENTS ROUND::
- Affirmed and Honoring of all our unique offerings
- Assured. Relaxed into the rich VITAL WEB OF LIFE
- One generation Cometh as another passes. in the heart they abide forever.
- Facilitating the transfer of power as actively and rapidly as possible.
- The Wisdom present is now embodied at the base through the heart.
- Through happenstance of history, we have a super rich soil that needs tilling
- "WE" as a configuration of generations, are the ones at this time are what we have been waiting for
- There is a history of promises- by fulfilling our promises we create a trust in the consciousness and culture of our future
- Watch the generations dance :)
<3 <3 <3