December, 2009

I continue to be blessed with many opportunities and a dynamic and challenging lifestyle.  I'm busy!

My interest in engaging myself and other retirees in meaningful ways has led me to participate in programs described as "positive aging."  Active retirees are a critical component of all CBEID programs (The Center for Business Educatoin, Innovation and Development (CBEID)), for example.

Having real purpose in retirement seems most important. Unfortunately for too many of us, that may not be achievable. Modern society's expectations of retirees are too low.  Our families and communities tolerate but don't engage us. We may lose critical work skills (not just technical) and become less effective and dependable.  Etc.

Last December I was fortunate to be invited to Civic Venture's first Encore Careers Summit where I was exposed to numbers of people having real impact in their "encore" adult careers. Struggling for a definition of these career models, I found my self writing: "work that’s more creative, more challenging, having more impact and is more meaningful than in previous professional iterations." 

Civic Ventures has celebrated many such people through their Purpose Prize program that there are many people who have achieved more, by their definition, in this phase of their lives than in their prior careers.  Of course that wouldn't surprize Dr. Gene Cohen, who died recently.  He and other scientists are showing that the brains and bodies of older people are capable of significant and special things.

Certainly continuing education - lifelong learning - is included in such programs.  My life continues to be enriched by the Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College (ASPEC), but also Chautauqua Institution and the University of Chicago's Graham School Asian Classics program.  Also the World Affairs group of the Geneva Learners is still thriving, thanks to wonderful group of participants! 

Finally, my involvement with Erie Neighborhood House may be expanding.  They recently organized a MacArther Foundation-funded study tour of Guanajuato and Michoacan States in Mexico, jointly with the FUNDACIÓN COMUNITARIA DEL BAJÍO .  The purpose was for participants to learn about emigration from Mexico to the US and to strategize economic development schemes to help nurture growth among Mexican communities on both sides of the US border.  It's too early to tell, but I would like nothing better than to make a genuinely constructive contribution to this critical component of the US society and economy.

Please contact me with your thoughts.  I love to share what I'm learning, and to hear if you disagree and have different ideas!

Sincerely,

Ernest Mahaffey