Seniors and Elders

Occasionally I take a turn leading a devotional meditation with a group of seniors in a retirement community in our neighborhood. My wife also speaking there periodically, in the last several years we have a growing sense of camaraderie with these folks who like to gather for a regular time of “Faith and Friendship.” In fact I would say Verna has gathered up another ‘best friend’ in this community! It is a pleasure to be in company of these people.

This latest occasion I chose to present three scriptures, one from the Psalms, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord” (Ps 100), an Epistle “Now about food offered to idols” (1 Cor 8), and short passage from the final book of our Bible “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord” (Rev 11). Obviously the heavy one was in the middle; how we deal with one another in culinary and social and religious ceremony, bookended by the great wonderful scriptures of the One who is above and beyond all of us anyway.  It was an occasion of precisely that, faith and friendship. In middle of my meditation as I was expounding a bit on the Corinthian passage they began to rib each other about their various food preferences and peculiarities! It was cheerfully agreed that respect for one another is an important consideration even if our claim is freedom in Christ. Take care that our liberty, our social circles, our habits, not be a stumbling block to those 'weaker in the faith' (:9). It clicked. It seemed a good way to enter into this Advent season of celebration for the One coming among us – yes the birth of Jesus the Messiah.

Sometimes there are those natural occasions of communication, where the concerns and the pains of various individuals are simply embraced by all - easy to visualize as a community hug. Later that day, spending a few hours at our local library, I came across a brief blurb I had written three years ago. Absolutely in-sync with that 1 Corinthians passage, I was reminded that this challenge of being among others goes well beyond the dear folks at the seniors Centre. Circles of fellowship, of faith need to go beyond our own circles of comfort! Here is a paragraph from 2019.

Even if a little short on sleep, I am refreshed.  I am stimulated.  I have new questions.  Ironically my joke last night in circle time – that I might yet try politics in my retirement - are now almost the drumbeat in my soul. 😯 Churches that try to organize according to settler colonialism are barking up the wrong trees.  Governments that seek a future that promotes environment, inclusive LGBTQ+, good health care, and sustainable economies require sensitive sensible leaders.  Businesses that ignore 2019 realities will go into receivership.  All of these ‘interest’ stakeholders showed up these last 14 days!  I must say I enjoyed them all.  Well, most of them; I do not enjoy stump speeches that go on and on during circle time!

 

This was written at the end of an inspiring experience, the evening of the last day of a two-week hike (#WalkForCommonGround) from Edmonton to Calgary. Well planned, together with about 30 others and in solidarity with First Nations Communities, sponsored by Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), the purpose was education for us participants as well as communicate to the automobiles and the trucks passing by as we walked the shoulders of designated secondary highways (not the four lane QE2)! “We are all Treaty People,” coming from our varying communities or traditions, we carried this sign as reminder of the privileged history which has been ours in this good country of Canada, much of it wrested from the Indigenous. Ever since that summer I have become not only interested in, but grateful to the Blackfoot Confederacy where I reside in Calgary. [fn1] A land acknowledgement is quite common by now at beginning of many public gatherings going forward. “Times, they are a changing”, Bob Dylan crooned many years ago during my college days. His songs originally on vinyl and cassette still continue to ring true.

Truth be told, this latest treaty walk provided some old information I had not known - even though 'Indians' would stop by occasionally to sell fish at our farm near Osler, Saskatchewan. I learned nothing about our local history. My elementary and high school education was government curriculum including God Save the Queen and O Canada! Now many years later I learn that we lived and farmed some nice Treaty 6 land proffered to the Mennonites because we were good farmers. Now following this latest enjoyable morning with the senior citizens in Millrise, I realize our cheery promise to be respectful of one another in our habits and our culinary practices, ought also to consider the land we all inhabit, and the practices of the peoples who were here before us.

My thinker kicks into another gear now (Yes still the nesheah as my dad always said). Recently I read a book about elders, the senior citizens in Indigenous communities [fn2]. Thirty-one Alberta elders are profiled in the book - every kind of life, army, trapline, in jail, residential schools, etc. In present status they are the counsellors, they pray, fast, heal and help birth. The author Dianne Meili, a metis journalist and editor, discovered the value of these persons when she herself was in a needy situation. This book celebrates elders because elders are elders! Respect of elders is threatened in today's fast-paced urban society quick and easy to lay aside those who are forgetting or overly sentimental or opinionated or no longer pretty or virile - "losing it" is the common quip. These things matter not so much in a community which respects elders just for being there! 

Of course our Bible contains elder references also. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come (Psalm 71:18). And from the New Testament in the gospels there is this famous one, Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go (John 21:18).  The NT epistles go into the functional purpose of elders appointed to oversee new believers' groups, eg 1 Peter 5:1-4, Titus 1:5, also emphasizing that younger workers need to respect them, 1 Pet 5:5. Interesting about the Bible orientation is that elders are referenced for what they contribute to ongoing church work - moreso than celebration of their being.

Seems to me that Dianne Meili has a point. Our European/North American good-life Christianity emphasizes and evaluates almost everything in functional terms, meaning of course there comes a time when 'we get old' and in our societal kronos orientation at a certain age we convert accumulated life earnings and financial profiles and get them organized (usually with help of financial planners) into a retirement home and maybe even some nice funeral plans. This is not the mode operandi in Indigenous communities nor most African, Asian or Latino countries, where aging is a family and a community project.

Needless to say these several assertions are not at all exhaustive. They are only a few preliminary thoughts grown out of my recent readings and contacts among fellow seniors! I am not yet old, but retired long enough to know that 'senior citizenship' carries with it some challenges. I think it also appropriate for those of us in my age bracket to acknowledge we have created some of the ambivalences that we and our children are now living with! Something to think about.

Perhaps next time at the seniors center we will talk further about this. On second thought (third thought?) perhaps at church youth group. 😏

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1. The Siksika, Kinai, Piikani, the Tsuutina, the Iyaxe Nakoda Nations, the Stoney Nations, and the Metis (Region 3), all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta. 

2. Dianne Meili, Those Who Know: Profiles of Alberta's Native Elders, Edmonton: NeWest Publishers, 1991.