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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
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