Creating New Stories

The cultural stories we live in limit what we think is possible. They influence how we relate to ourselves and others, our circumstances and time. If we are to change the world, we must change our stories and assumptions about human nature, communication, aging, meaning, prosperity and security. Changing our stories begins when we change our conversations.

CHANGING THE PARADIGM OF AGING

Aristotle once said, “Life is a likely story.” So what story about aging do we want to live as we grow older?

What age ‘means’ isn’t about biology or the passage of time. It is true that our bodies will change and that someday we will die. But the meaning of age is dictated by our culture, our consciousness and our experience, and by how other people relate to us and how we relate to other people. The meaning we attach to it is purely an interpretation and, therefore, subject to being changed. It is simply a historically determined point-of-view of reality that is neither true nor false. It need not determine what happens in the future—unless we give our power to it. If we do, the past becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Some say aging is a state of mind. We believe it’s more powerful to view aging as a conversation. We don’t have a lot of control over what our mind does. It isn’t so easy to change. But we do have the ability to change our conversations. Why not speak of growing older as a love story that begins with discovering who we are and ends with as much possibility on the last day of our lives as we had on the first?

Share your perspective in this new conversation at Serene Ambition.

NAVIGATING THE GREAT TURNING

For the past 5,000 years, humanity has written a history of endless wars, economic competition and egocentric exploitation of the earth’s resources. In this story of ‘Empire’, human relationships have been predominantly organized in hierarchies, with the few dominating the many. The breakdown of our environmental and social systems reveals the empty promises of this Empire story.

We are part of a global awakening. We are one people—one global community sharing a common future on this, our only planet.

A new story of what is possible for humanity is emerging—one based on the principles of partnership and collaboration, sufficiency for everyone, leadership and service. We must be responsible for one another and for sustaining the world of which we are a part. We must create a new story based on worldcentric principles like those outlined in the Earth Charter:

Respect and care for the community of life
Ecological integrity
Social and economic justice
Democracy, nonviolence and peace

This new ‘Earth Community’ story involves us all. It requires that we share the best of who we are, that we transcend generations and come together to create a world that works for everyone.

Join the dialogue about the Great Turning.

Start Eldering

You alone can do it, but you can’t do it alone.

“Elders are mentors who teach the young; mediators who resolve civil, racial, and intergenerational conflicts; monitors of public bodies who serve as watchdogs of city hall and Congress; mobilizers of social change; and motivators of society who urge people away from self-interest and toward the public good.”
—Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Ronald Miller
From Age-ing to Sage-ing (1995)