Final draft? Crowdfund request

 

Support Your Local Eldercare Anarchist

FACT:  I’m an utterly uncertified, wondrously inspired eldercare anarchist out to revolutionize our culture’s woeful attitudes around aging. A bold new better is possible.

In less radical terms, I'm a Life Expansionist & General Instigator set on integrating elders, not isolating the old;  engaging, not distancing;  reving  'em up , rather than slowing them down.  And inspiring people, organizations, government to invest more in big hearts than big business!  

Where most experts focus on the deleterious aspects of aging - the breaking down of the physical body through decay & disease - I spotlight the gifts & graces only available as we get up there in years, helping older folks get in sync with what my 90+ year-old mother described writing,  “My mind feels strong, my spirit  feels strong.  As my body continues to head south, it no longer has the energy  to kick up a fuss about being temporary or to even try to fake being  permanent.  My feet drag somewhat and I move a lot more slowly than I did,  but most days my spirit soars,  making itself felt more and more.” 

Today's reality is that aging is typically marginalized by specialists & researchers, who can't manage, treat or cure it, with the final outcome always death.  Small wonder it draws little attention & scant funding.  

Perhaps that’s why so many innovative leaps in eldercare come from creatives –  dancers, musicians, artists.  From the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA), rather than the National Institutes of Health (NIH).   

These inspired creative souls are my role models & mentors.  They bring passion & innovative approaches to how we – from birth to death - grow older in America;  use words like generativity rather than deleterious.   

Thanks to them, the question now isn’t if our dismal culture around aging will ever change or even when, but HOW.    

What do I bring to this revolution? 

•  Lifelong experience with aging, aged & ancient friends who lived full-throttle lives to their final days.
•  The drive to inspire others to accept we’re never too young or too old, too weak or too frail, to live – as best as circumstances allow – similar  purpose-driven, productive lives.    
•   A commitment to translate what I know & do into forms others can use
•  An unquenchable curiosity about how to honor our elders – as ancient wisdom commands – that OUR days may be happier, more prosperous, more worth living.  
• My blog, older2elder, supporting my Vision Statement - "I help engage, energize & empower people of all ages to move past just getting older & toward growing into elders, to experiencing what can be done only with great age, not in spite of."  (thegrannielistener.blogspot.com)

 

Which brings us to this request.  What I offer, what I do might never provide sufficient income to fund the conferences & workshops that beckon, to underwrite my dream projects.  Especially since what I develop will be offered without charge ~ it might not be the financially expedient thing to do, but it is the right thing.  

What I accomplish over the next six months, what I attend & the inspiring souls I get to meet, hinges on how well I can raise underwriting funds.  It's straightforward - how much I raise depends on how much value people put on what I do.  
   

Over the next four weeks, I hope to raise $20,000 to tackle on the following - acting locally, thinking globally:

• Develop Values Vision Dreams – helping the aging, elderly & ancients connect to their current core values, compose a here & now vision statement, identify present-day dreams & ways to make them real
• Create a template around Cyber Access for the Technically Timid ~ connecting folks who are tech challenged with a HUMAN who helps them fully utilize the wonders of the Digital Age without touching a keyboard
• Form a multi-faith Nurturing a 5th Commandment Mindset discussion group, considering what it means to honor our parents, the elderly, so that OUR lives may prosper.   
• Attend the National Center for Creative Aging Conference/Leadership Exchange in D.C. & the Legacy Film Festival on Aging in San Francisco ~ September
• Organize TEDxBrynAthynWomen - October.
• Craft a local campaign around StoryCorps' Great Thanksgiving Listen 2016.
• Purchase a reliable second used car – one with enough space for a wheel chair
• Secure copyright protection on a range of business names
• Upgrade computer skills & equipment 
• Draft rough outline for Badass Grandma, telling tales of my intensely challenged, wildly triumphant Mom.
• Additional monies would go toward attending The Sage-ing International Biennial Conference and additional Rowe Conference Center & Omega Institute workshops, take online courses & seminars.   

 

Writing this, am remembering a young friend musing to me a while back,  "Aunt Deev, you put a human face on aging."  That touched my heart.

Where I've seen myself as someone who helps others clear obstacles out of their path; my young friend saw something more.  The fiercely proud elderly aunt replacing surviving with thriving, the retired professor rebuilding a life, the grannie client with full freedom in her apartment, the artist whose life light was switched on by a drawing pencil, the family having someone to help them face the unexpected & unimaginable.  A human face on aging. 

Joan Chittister talks about the elderly finding themselves at “that crossroad without a name.” I help older friends realize it might not have a name, but it does have a purpose.   

Joan goes onto say that passion is what calls to us to be done, purpose is how we do it.  Call me an eldercare anarchist or revolutionary, a life expansionist or general instigator  -  helping overturn, then set right, our country’s culture around aging is my grand passion.  Your support will help determine how well I serve its purpose.

A revolution is brewing in how America’s culture treats our elderly.  It is happening, will happen, whether or not you respond to my request.  Will I be in the vanguard or following up in the rear?

Cannot close without sharing my IMMENSE gratitude to the friends who’ve helped me get to where I am – without your loving support, I’d be all hopes & little action.  To all my Guardian & Earth Angels – thanks, thanks & more thanks.

I appreciate your consideration of my request.  Whether you can contribute funding toward my goal, send me words of encouragement or simply hold my quest in your heart - thank you!

One last thought – contributing toward my work isn’t just an investment in my future.  It’s an investment in yours, too.

 

PERKS - all reflect someone's dream realized:

$10 – 1^st draft copy, “Cooper of the Gardens” (my children’s picture book introducing B.A. Cathedral gardens – text only)

$25 - above, plus 8 x 11” print of my sister, Mim’s, artwork paired with the quote “We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams."

$50 –  above, plus  5 cards/envelopes featuring my John’s K-4 engine

$100 – above, plus Jonathan Rose’s just released cd, Clear Shining After Rain

$250 – above, plus bottle of Bill’s Best Barbeque Sauce

$500 – above, plus bag of Be Well Bakery & Cafe’s granola

$1000 – above, plus signed copy of Captain (Dean) Morey’s book, The Life and Times of Edgar G. Edgehill: January,  illustrated by Jency Cole Latta

$2500 -  above, plus a Cathlin Grace custom-designed crystal pendant

$5000 – above, plus one-of-a-kind Dream Journal decorated by Deev, with DIY instructions