ASHTON APPLEWHITE, member of my tribe

Ah, Ashton.  Earlier today I wrote about the importance of connecting with, forging ties to your tribe - or, better yet, tribes.

For someone who was unusually - almost aggressively - tribe-free in my earlier years, my early 60s have found me fairly wallowing in the glory of being Part Of A Greater Whole.

As a child, I longed to be part of something greater than just little ol' me.  As it became apparent that was not to be, I took the opposite approach, willfully keeping myself distinct distant apart.  But something deep down within me still throbbed with the desire to be part of more, much more.

Falling in love with, marrying John was my first toe into a greater, deeper sense of tribe.  John brought no more connections than I had.  Together, we formed a tiny tribe of two.  Small, but it was a conscious start.  Over the years, we've connected our way into dear friendships & even one certifiable tribe, with five members; we have our annual summer & winter rituals, occasional get togethers & even - gasp! - phone calls.  And I've developed at least one a lasting friendship that certainly qualifies as a tribe of two.

My two most important tribes are US (my Keet & me) & my eldering tribe, with many members who are close to my heart, essential to my purpose, but whom I've yet to met.  Praise be, Ashton n my larger tribe, you'll find folks who are kindred souls but have - for the most part - never met met.  They are still part of my tribe.

Ashton Applewhite  is a light-infused member of that tribe.  Wonder of wonders, we've actually met!  I was introduced to Aston just a shade over two weeks ago, through one of my shamans - Jane Kerschner, who downright babbled (she is NOT the babbling sort) about Ashton's book, This Chair Rocks, her voice filling the airwaves with bolts of bright light & streams of colors as she described the "manifesto against ageism."

How to describe Ashton, whom I actually MET a week ago yesterday, at a book signing at Book Culture on Columbus?  Wonderful hair, dynamic physic, terrific face, low key kicky outfit that flowed with her every movement.  I suspect that her friends would describe her as a force of nature.

Ashton claims to have stumbled across the issue of ageism in writing a book about people working into their eighties & beyond, when she discovered that the reality she was discovering seemed light years from the negative image she had of getting seriously up there in years. 

The soil was well prepared for the seed of interest to grow & flourish!  Ashton's an established writer.  Yes, as Wikipedia respectfully notes, her subjects range from family policy to science & technology, but she shared with those of us at the signing that she started her career as a published author with the Truly Tasteless Jokes book series (written, perhaps wisely, under a pseudonym). Her insights & persceptive connections have earned praise from countless sources, including the New York Times, NPR, and no less than the Society on Aging, each of which single her out as an expert on ageism.  Bravo!

Ashton has been speaking writing blogging about ageism since 2007.  In 2012, she took to the lecture circuit to ballyhoo the wretched way America treats its aging, the miserable expectations too many Americans have of getting O L D, as one of my grannie clients puts it.  She blasts the double victimization of the elderly - by others & their own expectations, speaks out against elder abuse, points out ageism takes a higher toll on women than on men & calls out the health care industry for the "medicalization" of old age.  My kinda human!


If Jane is one of my tribe's shamans, Ashton is certainly one of its Wisdom Seekers.  I am blessed to have her at my fire.