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"The world was not left to us by our parents," says an African proverb, "It was lent to us by our children." Hold that thought for a moment while you consider that volunteering among mature Americans, called "this country's only increasing natural resource" by Marc Freedman, author of Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America, is on the rise. A new study conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates for Civic Ventures, the San Francisco nonprofit organization founded by Freedman, shows that 56 percent of Americans between the ages of 50 and 75 are planning to make volunteering and community service an important part of their post-career life. Although volunteering in the general population appears to be decreasing - from 55.5 percent in 1998 to 44 percent in 2000, according to an Independent Sector survey - older Americans are undeterred by the impact of the economic downturn on their savings and appear "poised to assume a leadership role in rejuvenating the nation's civic life." So volunteering - and let's be clear that, although unpaid, it is work - is working. In fact, volunteer activity fills a widening gap in civic life wherever government or the private, for-profit sector does not or will not act in the public interest. Enlightened business leaders know that being good corporate citizens has a favorable impact on their staff, customers, community, and their own bottom line... Speaking of bottom lines, you may be surprised to learn that volunteering - also known as the "third sector" - contributes an estimated $239.2 billion to the economy (Independent Sector estimates), and that's without cutting jobs or degrading the environment. A measure of the importance of our pro bono contributions is that the U.S. Department of Commerce has begun to include the contribution of volunteers in calculating the economic output of the nation... What is driving this re-born idealism? One possible answer is that maturity bestows on us a unique perspective on what our role is or could be in the community. As we emerge from years of preoccupation with career-building and family life, our vision clears. We see connections that weren't so obvious before. We may develop a one-world view; on some deep level, we "get" the reality of environmentalist, John Muir's notion that when you tug at any part of nature, you find that everything else is attached to it. We believe the reason so many of us in our 50s and older are turning from the "making it" to making it better for all of us, is simply this: we see the future in the eyes of our children - biological or otherwise - and theirs.
(Adapted from our forthcoming book: Too Young to Retire: An Off-the-Road Map to the Rest of Your Life, The Writers Collective 2003) Volunteering is easier than you might think. Here in Florida where we are spending the winter, we signed up at the nearby John D. McArthur State Park as nature guides. After a couple of training trips, we can now point out the gumbo-limbo tree and osprey plunging headfirst into the estuary after their prey (they never miss!). Volunteers get to choose from a variety of assignments and have free access to the park. Probably the closest we'll get to a McArthur fellowship, but one can dream. Mark your calendars: March 12, noon-1 PM at the 92nd Street Y Makor/Steinhardt Center, 35 W. 67th Street, NYC, presentation based on Too Young to Retire: An Off-the-Road Map to the Rest of Your Life. Reservations: 212-415-5500 or www.92Y.org. Program Code: T-MD5LC32-01.
BOOKSITE Historian and social critic, Theodore Roszak, (The Making of a Counter Culture, Longevity Revolution: As Boomers Become Elders) tries his hand at humor with his latest novel: The Devil and Daniel Silverman, Leapfrog Press 2003, a well-timed, gleeful burlesque of fundamentalist bigotry and intolerance.
The novel recounts what happens when the once and future best-selling author, Daniel Silverman (Jewish, liberal and gay), best known for retelling classics from the perspective of their focal character - I, Emma (Madame Bovary) and Deep Eye (Moby Dick) -- allows himself to be persuaded into accepting a speaking engagement at Faith College in North Fork, Minnesota. "Forty-five minutes, twelve thousand bucks. Hey, presto! Gone." Prepared to deliver his standard lecture on Jewish authors - Bellow, Mailer, Roth, Malamud - Silverman finds himself addressing a hostile audience who, among other things, question the "historicity" of the Holocaust. Discarding his speech, he talks about his Aunt Naomi's little blue tattoo as "the most important work of Jewish literature ever written." When his talk ends with a demonstration of angry pro-lifers (complete with lurid poster), he responds against his better judgment - and imagining himself homeward bound on that night's red-eye -- by his flaunting his sexual orientation. But the fates and a record-breaking blizzard conspire to strand Silverman, without lover, friend or working telephone, in the topsy-turvy world of chapter-and-verse Fundamentalist America where he must come to terms with his identity as humanist, Jew, homosexual, writer and man. Along the way, he hallucinates conversations with his ultra-orthodox Grandpa Zvi and with Shenandoah Fish, (the Delmore Schwartz character), consoles himself with volumes from the Faith College library such as In Charitable Refutation of Those Who Teach that Non-Immersion Can Quench the Fires of Hell, Together with Seven Joyful Sermons on Baptismal Sanctification, stuffs himself with forbidden treats, narrowly escapes an icy death, and begins (dimly at first) to shape from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress what will become his next best-seller. You'll find yourself rooting for Danny Silverman (and The Devil and Daniel Silverman).
Check out discounts and free postage from Leapfrog Press by visiting www.leapfrogpress.com/devil.html and clicking on "Friends of Silverman." Congratulations to fellow self-publisher, Nelda Toothman, author of The Teacher Within: Recognizing the Best in Children, released in late 2002 by Trafford Publishing. Based on her years in the classroom, the book uses stories of children to "illustrate a particular principle of effective teaching." A warm, gentle voice. (Nelda is the wife of Coach Rex Toothman, see www.2young2retire.com/toothman.html, and is also a life coach.) To order, www.trafford.com or 1-888-232-4444. MEDIA WATCH * Kudos to Time Magazine's Bonus Section, Generation (February 17) for highlighting "boomerang" entrepreneurs 50 and older.
* Congratulations to Rick Koca, founder of nonprofit StandUp for Kids, for getting his important work out in front of millions in Infiniti's new print advertising campaign in The New Yorker, "Who Cares. People making a difference" and a new book, Soul Purpose: 40 People Who Are Changing the World for the Better, to be published by Melcher Media and available in bookstore in Fall 2003. See our story on Rick at www.2young2retire.com/rickkoca.htm.
POTPOURRI * Do you collect inspiring quotations? We do. In fact, we are always on the alert for some bon mot, verbal or written, that stop us cold. Here's one quote, from an article in the Providence Journal about Rhode Island College social work professor and founder, The Poverty Trust, Nancy Gewitz: "The future is an infinite succession of presents. And to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, while embracing all that is good, is in itself a marvelous victory." * A quick click is all it takes. The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. This costs nothing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising. Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! http://www.thebreastcancersite.com * Based in Eugene, OR, Encore Theatre (http://www.encoreeugene.net/)aims to connect those who have been on this planet for some time with those who are just getting started. The enterprising group of performers provides free interactive performances for youth, to promote better understanding between the young and the young at heart. In an entertaining format, seniors share the wisdom and the truth of their lives, dispel the myths of aging, and foster self-esteem through original song, dance and storytelling. Something you'd like to see in your community? Get in touch with them: mailto:encore.theatre@iname.com for a complete description of the program, or call with your questions (541-342-1630). * In the category of questions better asked sooner: "How did it come to be that one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the country was used for decades in so many millions of women before its long-term effects were ever studied systematically?" (Dr. Jerry Avorn, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, chief of pharmaco-epidemiology at Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston.)
* Pablo Neruda was 50 when he began publishing his Elemental Odes. He had been a poet all along, under the uniform of a diplomat, but now he was ready for the work he was born for: "to go singing through the world." What is your life's work? And, having discovered it, how do you set about it? These are the great questions we ask ourselves in the second half of life. * Toughest states to find affordable health coverage (if you're on your own and in good health) are New Jersey, New York or Vermont. That because those states have guaranteed issue laws that require insurers to cover anyone who applies, regardless of health or community rating. Insurers have to charge everyone the same premiums. No competition means higher prices. Residents of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, will have it easier. * A recent poll on AT&T Worldnet home page asked: "At what age should people retire: 55, 62, 65, after 65, when they choose." How about never? Be well,
Howard and Marika
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