National Grandparents Day: Listening to The Elders



(Photo by Diego Grez)

In the cosmic scheme of things, it is probably no accident that National Grandparents Day falls on September 11 this year.  After all, if we can truly learn from the spiritual wisdom of our elders, there may never have to be another September 11 type tragedy.

There is an international group called The Elders that is bent

upon transmitting such wisdom.  The seeds of this group were

planted when entrepreneur Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel asked this crucial question:  Could a small dedicated group of independent elders help to resolve global problems and ease world suffering?  In order to answer this question, they studied traditional societies in which “elders often help to share wisdom and resolve disputes within communities.”  They then elicited support from Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel and Desmond Tutu in order to begin.

The organization’s website reports that prospective members of The Elders were invited to join on the basis of this criteria:  Firstly, and most importantly, they should be independent.  They should have earned international trust, demonstrated integrity and built a reputation for inclusive, progressive leadership.  Current members include Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan.

Other members are Ela Bhatt (a “gentle revolutionary” who has improved the lives of India’s poorest women by sharing Gandhian ideals with them), Lakhdar Brahimi (known for his peacemaking in Lebanon, and for his

overall efforts in Algeria, Afghanistan and Iraq), Martii Ahtisaari (Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2008), Mary Robinson (the first female President of Ireland), Fernando Cardoso (acclaimed former President of Brazil), Gro Brundtland (the first female Prime Minister of Norway), and Graca Machel (former Minister of Culture and Education in Mozambique).  There are two “Honorary Elders”:  Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi (who has led the struggle for freedom and nonviolence in Burma/Myanmar).  Muhammad Yunus (a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Bangladesh) has also been one of The Elders.

The Elders are speaking.  Are we listening?

Resources

http://www.grandparents.net/grandparentstributes.htm

http://www.theelders.org/elders

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Grandparents_Day

http://advantahomecare.net/east-vs-west-how-we-treat-our-elderly

Copyright September 11, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved