Thanks for this essay Karen. I'm pretty freaked out about AI and the implications for education (my brother, a high school English teacher, predicts the end of essays for class assignments and college apps). I take heart in the fact the AI could not share a personal story like yours, about your past job in the translator office -- those stories drawn from life are what make our writing unique and real. Thanks to your prompt, I will listen & catch myself being self-denigrating when I describe what I do.
Yeah I hear you. There are so many implications & we should all be having these conversations about these impacts. We should be having lots of conversations around education because we are not really preparing our kids for the lives they will be living & the skillsets they need. That’s a whole other subject. 🥴 Another thing we are missing is in our culture is really connecting & engaging multi-generations - especially in developing technologies. Which circles back to the self-denigrating. It starts with us. Valuing ourselves. Fully. The older we get, the more we have to bring to the table. We need to own that truth. Our world needs us to own that.
Aha! Right on….so much truth in these shared thoughts. I recently retired from a busy career…..and have been focusing on ‘clearing the slate”. In other words, stopping all the busy things in my life & purposely avoiding adding new stuff (regardless of how good it would be for me). For now….I need to stop the noise and hear my own voice before I take on anything new. Recently I've begun to hear this quiet ‘panic voice’ wondering who I am and who I will be going forward. What if I don’t want to do anything? What if I say No to too many things? What if I stop & can't get started? Living in a ‘senior ‘ community, I began to feel like I was surrounded with talk about aging, health challenges, etc. I almost resigned myself to that chatter, as true & real as it is sometimes. Then I took a closer look around me. I’ve aged into the ‘upper’ age group which means that most of my neighbors are younger than me! What am I doing to perpetuate the age talk? Or better yet….what can I do to interrupt the constant age talk…..what positive light can I shed (and model) that not only lifts my spirit & clears my own vision but that helps us all ‘clear the slate’ of age talk habits and perhaps notice the green sprouts of growth that even I am beginning to see in myself as I declutter my own life and take a breath of fresh air? Hmmm. These last weeks or so I’ve found mySELF emerging as I revisit the happiness and accomplishments I’ve known while I also read the wonderful inspiring things that other women have written/spoken/modeled. Author Anne Lamott has inspired me again recently with her blunt, poignant truths wrapped in humor, making me laugh out loud from my chair in my quiet corner. Today it was The Lift that pulled me into another day, another week, lifting my spirits, and challenging me to revise my view of my senior community. I live in a senior community surrounded by younger women. Wow! What message are they learning from me? Thank you Karen for sitting in front of the blank page until The Lift magically emerged. 💕
Thank you for these thoughts. I love this shift of perspective! I can assure you, us 'younger' ones can really benefit from watching you make/model these shifts.
Thanks for this essay Karen. I'm pretty freaked out about AI and the implications for education (my brother, a high school English teacher, predicts the end of essays for class assignments and college apps). I take heart in the fact the AI could not share a personal story like yours, about your past job in the translator office -- those stories drawn from life are what make our writing unique and real. Thanks to your prompt, I will listen & catch myself being self-denigrating when I describe what I do.
Yeah I hear you. There are so many implications & we should all be having these conversations about these impacts. We should be having lots of conversations around education because we are not really preparing our kids for the lives they will be living & the skillsets they need. That’s a whole other subject. 🥴 Another thing we are missing is in our culture is really connecting & engaging multi-generations - especially in developing technologies. Which circles back to the self-denigrating. It starts with us. Valuing ourselves. Fully. The older we get, the more we have to bring to the table. We need to own that truth. Our world needs us to own that.
I have a wealth of experience and wisdom in many (well some) things --- just not so much in technology!! Alrighty, I'll try harder - thanks!
So good! Lots of tateaways! :)
Aha! Right on….so much truth in these shared thoughts. I recently retired from a busy career…..and have been focusing on ‘clearing the slate”. In other words, stopping all the busy things in my life & purposely avoiding adding new stuff (regardless of how good it would be for me). For now….I need to stop the noise and hear my own voice before I take on anything new. Recently I've begun to hear this quiet ‘panic voice’ wondering who I am and who I will be going forward. What if I don’t want to do anything? What if I say No to too many things? What if I stop & can't get started? Living in a ‘senior ‘ community, I began to feel like I was surrounded with talk about aging, health challenges, etc. I almost resigned myself to that chatter, as true & real as it is sometimes. Then I took a closer look around me. I’ve aged into the ‘upper’ age group which means that most of my neighbors are younger than me! What am I doing to perpetuate the age talk? Or better yet….what can I do to interrupt the constant age talk…..what positive light can I shed (and model) that not only lifts my spirit & clears my own vision but that helps us all ‘clear the slate’ of age talk habits and perhaps notice the green sprouts of growth that even I am beginning to see in myself as I declutter my own life and take a breath of fresh air? Hmmm. These last weeks or so I’ve found mySELF emerging as I revisit the happiness and accomplishments I’ve known while I also read the wonderful inspiring things that other women have written/spoken/modeled. Author Anne Lamott has inspired me again recently with her blunt, poignant truths wrapped in humor, making me laugh out loud from my chair in my quiet corner. Today it was The Lift that pulled me into another day, another week, lifting my spirits, and challenging me to revise my view of my senior community. I live in a senior community surrounded by younger women. Wow! What message are they learning from me? Thank you Karen for sitting in front of the blank page until The Lift magically emerged. 💕
Thank you for these thoughts. I love this shift of perspective! I can assure you, us 'younger' ones can really benefit from watching you make/model these shifts.
It might take a while to fully shift . . . so thanks for bearing with me on the journey. Hopefully it is an educational one :-)