Becoming Elder
Earth Council Gatherings between Elders and Youth to build living alliances between generations, united in their commitment to a thriving future for all life
In a time when many elders face isolation, disconnection from community, and a sense of waning purpose, we seek to activate the uncharted powers of our elders. Today's societies often overlook or sideline the wisdom, skills, and presence of elder generations. Too many people in their later years find themselves adrift in a cultural landscape that emphasizes productivity and individualism, leaving little room for the communal roles traditionally held by those with long life experience. This reality contributes to an unraveling of social cohesion, where the elders’ rich potential for guidance, teaching, and relational depth remains largely untapped.
Our Elders Gatherings fill a socio-political gap by providing a platform for elder generations to reclaim their indispensable roles within society. By inviting elders into active, reciprocal dialogs with young adults, the gatherings will serve as counterpoints to the isolation and sense of irrelevance that often accompanies aging in contemporary society. Here, elders are seen not as passive recipients of care but as powerful stewards of wisdom, whose experiences hold transformative potential for intergenerational learning and ecological awareness.
The ‘wisdom years’ can yet become a celebrated time of reawakening rather than withdrawal, where people come together not only for self-reflection but also for active roles in ecological, social, and spiritual renewal.
Our model of ‘elderhood’ aims to subvert the typical trajectory of retirement and inactivity, instead enabling participants to act as cultural and ecological catalysts within their communities. Participants will return home not only with a stronger sense of self but with actionable tools for community building, ecological stewardship, and fostering a renewed commitment to Earth-centered living. In this way, the Elders Gatherings can become sanctuaries for reimagining the purpose of aging, for fostering bonds across generations, and for restoring humanity’s place within the vibrant and sacred tapestry of life
Photo by Austra Apsīte
We live in a time shaped by fear-driven narratives. A culture of stress, anxiety, and urgency pervades our lives, leaving little space for the deep presence that elders embody. We need to create sanctuaries—not just for the younger generations, but for the elders themselves. Spaces where wisdom can be lived, not just remembered. Where we can check in with those who carry a quality of being that transcends the urgency of doing.
These gatherings are about remembering. Remembering how to be in the presence of elders. Remembering that wisdom does not demand productivity. They are an invitation to step into a field of intergenerational resonance, where Being itself is enough, where wisdom arises when tension meets release, when the burden of the world gives way to a still point.
That is when we can recognize that moving toward the free action necessary to transform our shared livelihoods toward cultures of aliveness, we can cultivate moral intuition, moral imagination, and moral practice. The goals along the way are not rigid or predetermined; rather, they emerge through shared efforts of understanding.
We envision these gatherings as oases of joy, a sanctuaries for presence. We need those who can capture its magic. We seek the elders who are not on great stages but who have carried the quiet, necessary work of sustaining community. How can we honor them? How can we express our gratitude for all they have given?
Through these gatherings, we work towards forming an intergenerational council, bringing together elders from diverse cultures, traditions, and backgrounds. Their mission: to enter into meaningful dialog with youth from around the world, catalyzing a transformation that recognizes our interbeing with nature and dissolves the illusion of separateness.
True insight does not dictate action—it ignites it. Just as new moral intuitions and practices arise from direct engagement with the fundamental questions of our time, so too does the strength of a community depend on its willingness to wrestle with its deepest concerns.
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