A Genuine Senior Moment

Friends,

State Representative Brenda Clack invited me to speak to a celebration luncheon she and Catholic Charities were hosting for grandparents in Flint who were or are actively parenting grandchildren. I had become keenly aware of this kind of heroic challenge, because my Little Brother’s grandmother adoped him nine years ago. I have often been struck by the way Alberta stepped up and now steps up every day in his life. Like so many of these quiet heroines and heroes, she feels she is simply doing what needs to be done, what life and God have asked. The journey to leadership in this instance begins with awareness of a gap and then the willingness to step up to leadership to fill that gap. These grandparents took a first step that all of us can avoid by looking away, filtering out, not perceiving injustice, difficulty, or danger. Some inner filter says to us: “Let someone else handle it.” It is inspiring to watch someone who does not turn such a blind eye.

This weekend as I was reading a novel called Marathon, I stumbled across this life-focusing line from Horace Mann, who in the mid-1800s was a major catalyst in the creation of public schools in America. Mann wrote, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” It made me think about the response of these grandparents and about the call of leadership generally. It made me wonder: Where will you and I win some victory for humanity?

Mann’s cry and Representative Clack’s grandparents also made me reflect on the short-term economic thinking that causes institutions to drive out older workers whose years have pushed them up the pay ladder. Because they are viewed as costs to the system or old-timers, or as over-the-hill, more than a few of these workers can’t wait to retire. They feel underused and underappreciated. Shouldn’t we be inviting them, with the wisdom they have acquired, to pursue “some victory for humanity”? With a competitive world out there, and with demographics that suggest we will soon wish we still had them in the workforce, we would be wise to work hard at appreciating, engaging, challenging, and encouraging these 50 and 60-somethings. Like the heroic grandparents, they may not have the same energy they once had, but they have much more wisdom and have the capacity to make a great difference - one they and we could savor. Why not spark their desire to “win a victory,” like these grandparents who have answered the call to make a difference?

In our youth-crazy world, we may completely miss the fact that it may not be until we are in the twilight of our careers that we are really most able to . . .

Lead with our best self,

Dan