“Kathleen has been preparing for her own death for over ten years when she first volunteered for hospice care. And quite uniquely, she is also a hospice volunteer. Even with a terminal illness she continues on with good humor and a buddhist-like sensibility- seeing her end as just another thing that happens – just like her fabulous dinner parties.”
This is a segment from the documentary film, “Lessons for the Living.”
“50 of the world’s most inspiring and iconic figures over the age of 65 share their words of wisdom. Wisdom is a multimedia exhibition that features extraordinary large-format portraits and documentary footage of interviews created by award-winning photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman.”
This seems like a great project. God knows that what we need now more than ever is the wisdom from the experience of the elder generation. We live in such a youth-consumed/obsessed culture that we practically discard our elders and their hard-gained wisdom (and I mean wisdom, not knowledge). We need desperately now if we expect to survive the past-century technological quantum leap.
I have felt for a long time that America needs to better integrate it’s senior generation. In cultures past, it wasn’t uncommon for the elder generation to stay home and help raise the children while the child-rearing generation went off to work, find purpose and help provide. This insured that the wisdom of the elder generation was passed down to the young so they didn’t replicate the mistakes of generation’s past. Why don’t we do that anymore? I have always wondered. Now it’s just hustle, work and daycare.
You can learn a little more about the project here.
