I’ve recently been to a couple of Indivisible meetings and some protest marches downtown in reaction to what’s going on in Washington, D.C. There are so many elders at these happenings. At first I was disappointed there weren’t more young people – after all, it’s their earth, their bodies, their world now.
As time passes, I realize younger people are busy working, in school, raising families, trying to make their way in the world. Most of us have retired, have more time, and have a deep sense of what the past 50 years have held. We see how important it is to protest, boycott, resist, stand for basic rights in whatever ways we can.
We all don’t want to march, or make calls or physically protest something. But there are things to do in our own personal ways. Some are working on local issues of the unhoused, or the environmental dilemma, or the continual price increases everywhere. Whatever seems to move us is where we need to be. Maybe it’s just helping a neighbor, or a friend in need. Grassroots stuff.
Many of us came of age in the ’60s and certainly had many things to change in our lives – women's rights, racial rights, the war, the music, the politics, the whole culture actually. We had been children in the ’50s when there were very tight rules and regulations for societal values. The suburbs, wealth, competition, status, how we looked to the neighbors were what mattered. We had to change things!
We’ve been through cultural changes, uprisings, radical resistance before and know how important it is to show our strength for the issues at hand, as well as for our own psyches, our sense of ourselves, our good-bad, ethical-unethical, lines and boundaries, right and wrong. We also have a deep appreciation of what has been, what could be and a huge concern about what’s happening, the larger picture. I’m sure many are dealing with these issues, no matter their age.
The good of the whole vs. the self, the collective vs. the individual is what’s more important to me now. Things seem to really change at basic hometown levels, in nongovernmental organizations, more locally and in a smaller scale. Perhaps we have the wisdom, scope and perspective to help balance the community, the culture and nature. Elders play an essential role in engendering healthy cultural environments. This is our work now!
Whether it’s about the environment, poverty, immigration, the unhoused, human rights, economic equality, fire protections, untruths, health care, guns, crime, foreign relations, energy or whatever you’re concerned about, make it heard!
It’s only right that we take this upheaval on. We all have less energy than we once did, but there are many ways to represent what’s good. Calls and emails and letters to our senators and representatives, discussions with friends, daily actions that are thoughtful and caring, marching and standing with others all help. And of course voting for local people and issues who fit the values we believe in. Some sites: Indivisibledurango.org, chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions@substack.com, 5calls.org.
It’s difficult to age, kindness and energy go a long way. Perhaps these causes are a sort of shot in the arm to do what we can in these last years. May we be role models to all who come after us, and embody the true elders we are.
Martha McClellan has lived in Durango since 1993 and has been an educator, consultant and writer. Reach her at mmm@bresnan.net.
