Excerpts from RC Journal OLDER AND BOLDER
Recovering our Futures and Our Power
We RC elders are pioneers, learning how to eliminate the diseases and malfunctions that hamper our bodies from being fully alive and active. We are the first RC elder generation to take the direction that much "physical deterioration" is not necessarily a natural part of growing older. All human beings have an almost miraculous power to heal that we are just beginning to tap. We hope to find our way through the maze of human disease using the tools of RC and other healing methods.We elders have an even more important job to do. We are in the process of defining what a rational elder is, not only in terms of our physical lives, but also in terms of all other human endeavors. Up until now only a small percentage of human beings have been able to live long, healthy, and fully productive lives. Using RC tools we may be the first to demonstrate just how much human beings can accomplish with years of experience in all fields of endeavor and also as just, plain human beings, i.e., intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. What do you suppose a healthy, rational, re-emerged one-hundred-year-old will look like?
Patricia Markee,
Older and Bolder No. 5, pp. 87-94
Counseling Elder Parents
It's a joy to counsel elder parents! As with every parent, we need to assume that the elder parent loves his/her adult child absolutely. Any feelings that might interfere with that love come from the oppressions the parent has struggled with, and from the many years of restimulation that have been faced with too little help or resource. Often, elder parents have adopted a strategy of "giving up" on closeness and a rewarding relationship with their grown children because there was no counselor for the hurts as they accumulated. If a counselor can hold out full relaxed hope for a rewarding relationship, elder parents can discharge the grief and fears that have been adding up. It is important that the counselor not minimize or ignore the difficulties that may exist. We need to remember that to discharge on the roots of present relationship difficulties, it often works best to ask the elder parent to tell the story of the birth and early years of the relationship with that child.
Patti Wipfler,
Older and Bolder No. 5, pp. 35-36
People of Color over Fifty
Within RC, recruiting people of color into classes and workshops has gone very slowly, but little by little it is happening. Some of these recruits are over fifty. Most of the time, just as with every other issue with people of color, the aging issue is buried under the issues connected with racism, so if there is some difficulty, old-ageism is not looked at. We need for other elders to step outside their fear and encourage older people of color to join support groups and topic groups at workshops so they can work on this very important issue. We need younger people to act as our allies and counsel us on our internalized oppression (the internalized racism and the internalized old-ageism). Older people of color have a lot to offer: we are an asset to any group.
Our contribution to the history of this country is immense. We need a chance to share this with the RC Community and the world.
Dottie Curry
Older and Bolder No. 5, p. 31