Betty Reid Soskind is a story gatherer. She is history, walking. And I don't mean the history she shares on the job at the Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park, where she serves as the oldest U.S. Park Ranger. I mean the ones she tells at a trio of women whose lives extend from 1846 to this present moment - herself, her mother, her grandmother.
Betty's grandmother was born a slave, in Louisiana. She died when her granddaughter was in her late twenties. Her granddaughter learned the stories her centenarian plus grandmother shared. Her mother brought her own rich history to her daughter. Her daughter brings them & her own history to us.
It is remarkable that Betty serves as a ranger, but her most outstanding accomplishment is how fully she embodies what we are meant to be in our eldering years, things that we are all called to do, even those who are not able to get up every day, put on a uniform, serve the nation & the public.
Betty's greatest accomplishment, to me, is how these years help put her life into context. In that, she reminds me of another other rather exceptional elder. And is a reminder of how few olders use this time for such a what-we're-here-to-do purpose.
As I muse on what she shared last night, what she shares on her blog, it strikes me as significant that she is African-American. Her grandmother couldn't to read accounts of her family, or even her culture. Her mother didn't see herself reflected in the print culture that surrounded her. Betty got her public education from text books that described our nation's Euro-American history. To have an awareness & appreciation of their racial history & culture REQUIRED an oral history tradition.
Listen to her NPR interview. Think about your children, your self.
How many detailed stories could you share about ancestors who go back just one generation, let alone three?
For my Facebook friends who take delight in posts of archived film clips & photos of events from the early parts of & throughout the last century - what are YOU doing to preserve, treasure & make available your own family stories? How many photos do you have printed out & labeled, not just stored on a cloud?
Perhaps the high point of my own accomplishments will turn out to be helping Mom recall & record her own life stories on her own all-too-brief blog. I've taken steps to get my older sibs to share family stories about things that happened long before my time, during eras I never experienced (am the youngest, by a lot). They have so many rich experiences involving relatives I never knew - summers at the Ripley ranch, aunts & uncles, GREAT aunts & uncles, grandparents, family times & tragedies. Listening to Betty has given me the boot to keep at it, to renew my efforts to get my sibs to do their own recalling & recording.
During the interview, Betty made a comment about using her time to put her life into context. I believe utterly & completely that's meant to be the great use of older age, one too few people do.
Too many olders think of their personal histories as something that belongs in the past; too few see them as something to illuminate our present & down the years.
Too few elders realize, as Betty does, that they've lead "lots & lots of lives." It's clear that Betty was engaged with life long before she tripped the oldometer (one of Mom's phrases) into significant elderhood. She embodies all I hope for, all that is captured in older2elder's motto - "engage energize empower."
How can each of us youngsters & youngers help older friends, loved ones, clients recognize & honor the arc of their own life? That is the question I have, listening to & reading about Betty Reid Soskind.
Yesterday afternoon, hours before being introduced to Betty & her rich story, I shared with a grannie client the greatest challenge I face working with older friends like her - my great life's work is helping them rediscover (or discover) their voice, to recognize & honor their life stories, to get a rewarding sense of context about their life. Yet if I were to grant their dearest wish, for far too many of them, it would be to help them go invisible, to be as little fuss & bother for their family & others as possible. And my grannie client agreed.
It's a challenge to win the trust of people when the very thing you're encouraging them to do - speak up & out - is the opposite of what they think will best serve their families & caregivers.
Then, it was time for my nightly listen to Tell Me More & there was Betty.
Her comment about her own life - that our national history is informed by her own family's stories, that she thinks "all of the elements are there" - is true for all of us. Our community, cultural, national history is shaped by families. Maybe not as richly as Betty's, which experienced challenges few of my friends can begin to fathom, but each with a richness of its own.
Betty - thanks for the kick in the butt. Will send out another request to my sibs (and include nieces & nephews & cousins!) for family stories to write down. May all the Lockharts, through all the ages, become a semblance of storytellers like you & my Mom.
Thanks, thanks & more thanks!
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