"Our task is to really take (our culture's experience with aging) into the
public arena & start a different kind of public conversation about
it.”
Praise be for 2014 MacArthur Fellow, Ai-Jen Poo! She helped spearhead Caring Across Generations, a campaign committed to turning around how Americans approach aging. This brilliant woman is devoted to ensuring that our oldsters & elderly experience lives marked with as much wholeness, dignity, even vitality as possible. Caring Across Generations combines the power of social media & social action with good old-fashioned storytelling to connect generations, strengthening often faltering family & caregiving relationships that have too-often left so many of our most vulnerable to risk.
Reading about Ai-Jen, a wave of relief swept over me. It can feel like I am shouting into the wind, the number of times people I admire & respect telling me what a waste of time it is to work for change to our nation's dismal culture around aging. I am not alone!
My heart leapt, reading about the power of storytelling. It made me think of my friend, Jane, and the stories she shares with her Facebook friends about caring for her 90+ year old mother-in-law, how much I appreciate how she shows the power of loving family who appreciate in every way the devoted care she receives from an amazing group of caregivers. There is more power in Jane's stories than in a thousand statistics!
Caring Across Generations provides a forum for sharing stories like Jane's, as well as a vehicle for all of us to become more aware of how some of the most vulnerable among us are typically cared for by some of the most vulnerable in our work force, the home health care worker.
Alas, these essential men & women are too often underpaid & overworked. How can we expect them to respect & treat others with dignity & respect when they are not?
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