Elders and Youth

Michael Meade, that wise elder constantly looking at which story we’re living out both personally and culturally, had this to say in his recent Podcast (#380):

 

Traditional tales from many cultures show how youth and elders are opposite sides of a psychic pairing in which each is necessary to understand the other. Despite cultural gaps between them, youth and elders are secretly connected, and each holds an essential piece of the human inheritance. The eternal youth in each soul carries the original dream of our life, while the old sage in each heart has the wisdom needed to find and follow paths of meaning and purpose.

Beautiful. An important insight as to why I feel compelled to still teach young people, both personally energized by their exuberant spirit and their ability to care and giving something in return as I throw out the breadcrumbs that lead them to “paths of meaning and purpose.” After this week of taking care of business— money, dentist, doctors and such—I’ll return next week to a local school helping them prepare for their Spring Concert. I can live an okay life without the constant presence of children, but truth be told, it feels like some colors are missing from my palette when I do. 

 

Meade goes on later to hit another bullseye in the target explaining what feels important to me and why:

 

In traditional cultures, elders do not simply exercise power and authority, but rather are expected to remember the essential values and the enduring truths that people keep forgetting. Genuine elders lead by remembering further back than others as well as by seeing more clearly ahead. They serve as seers who can see behind and beyond the politics of the day and perceive ways to bring people together and plant seeds for a meaningful future. In traditional cultures, elders were considered to be a valuable resource without whose guidance whole societies could lose their way.

 

Boom! That was so clearly my role in The San Francisco School, standing up for the character of the school that I didn’t create, but lived out and enlarged and articulated for over four decades. Values the new admin folks who took over the last 15 years didn’t clearly understand and the school community (though not the veteran teachers) was on the cusp of forgetting. I paid a high price for my self-appointed role of “Keeper of Community,” suspended twice and put on probation for a year for the audacity to speak out. But once I more clearly understand that these were not personal or political issues (though that leaked in, as they do), but matters of principle that I was defending, I could wear those suspensions as badges of honor. 

 

“Remembering further back than others” particularly struck a bell as time and again, I both remembered and told the stories of “how it used to be.” Always acknowledging that it wasn’t naively “the good ole days,” that in many ways that I could both count and name, the school continued to evolve and get better. But without that clear sense of the essential unwritten values, ideals and ethics that lay behind each decision, things could run aground. 

There are new people steering the ship since I left and they seem to be somewhat righting the course and that is a great pleasure to witness. Meanwhile, I have gone on to other voyages and am independently continuing that work “to bring people together and plant seeds for a meaningful future.” 

 

Without having to go to a single staff meeting. Yeah!