The Gero-Punk Project

Hello from partly-sunny Long Beach California! I’m here for the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) annual conference.

I’ve been here since Wednesday and will be heading back to the fairest city of them all, Portland, OR, on Sunday. In the meanwhile, in addition to attending the conference, I’ve been doing what any proper Gero-Punk does when visiting a new land: observing, asking questions, making notes, and taking a lot of photos; walking for miles; finding cool shops; eating beautiful food; and connecting with fine creatures of all sorts (I’ve seen: cormorants; pelicans; Western sandpipers; marbled godwits; Western grebes; loons)….

…you know, Gero-Punk Praxis!

But how about I give you a little update on what I’ve been doing so far at the conference?

Yesterday afternoon, March 3, 2016, I had the pleasure of serving as the Honorary Gero-Punk on a workshop presentation with colleagues from Portland Community College: Jan Abushakrah, Roger Anunsen, and Michael Faber. The panel, Designing Programs for Encore Learners and Encore Earners: Sharing Today’s Innovations, Exchanging Tomorrow’s Ideas, focused on the many special features of the innovative PCC gerontology program.

If you want to know more about the PCC gerontology program, take a look here: PCC Gerontology Program

Jan Abushakrah and I have been long-time colleagues and have collaborated on many projects and initiatives. In fact, Jan and her crew from PCC are exemplars when it comes to what true collegiality and collaboration looks like. Over the years, we’ve freely exchanged ideas, resources, even faculty and students (in fact, there’s a strong contingent of PCC gerontology students who participate in the Gero-Punk Project, and when I was still faculty at Marylhurst University, Jan would send students my way so they could complete their undergraduate degrees. Reciprocally, over the past 15 years, I have served on the steering committee for the PCC Gerontology program, helped Jan and others at PCC write a report on Boomers returning to college, and participated in a multi-year PCC-system wide initiative to increasing aging awareness). For further evidence of Jan’s excellence, I’m proud to report that she’s receiving the Hiram J Friedsam Mentorship Award for 2016. As well, she’s being inducted into AGHE as a Fellow.  Bravo, friend!

Roger and I have known each other for a decade or so, long before he joined Jan’s faculty. You may know Roger because of his cutting-edge work, with Michael Patterson, on the gifts of the grown-up brain (and mind!). I brought Michael and Roger to the Marylhurst campus several years ago to facilitate a day-long workshop on brain health and aging. They incorporated into their workshop many techniques and practices such as meditation, exercise, eating beautiful food and other holistic interventions. If you haven’t done so yet, check out their work at Mindramp. In their honor, I just enjoyed: a square of bitter-sweet dark chocolate, five walnut halves, and a wee bit of red wine.

Michael Faber and I just met for the first time yesterday though our professional lives have been traveling in parallel paths over the years. He just joined the PCC Gerontology faculty this past Fall. He’s co-author, with Judith Sugar, Robert Riekse, and Henry Holstege, of the text Introduction to Aging: A Positive, Interdisciplinary Approach, published by Springer. And he has a ton of community-based and direct service experience working with older adults. He’d be a great person to talk to if you are sussing how to enter into the complex and multi-faceted field of aging.

So, that’s a bit about my awesome colleagues. Let me tell you a bit more about our awesome workshop.

By intent and design, in our workshop we focused on the following questions:

• What are examples of best practices and model programs based on research and a proven track record of supporting encore learners to reach their academic goals, and to acquire knowledge and skills to secure meaningful jobs in the field and progress on their chosen career path?
• What are powerful tools and resources for designing practices and programs to support encore learners and to connect them with their local network of community partners providing internship, job, and entrepreneurial opportunities to realize their encore career?
• What are creative ways to go about connecting with a vibrant network of gerontology programs and encore organizations, both public and private, which are dedicated to promoting the unique and creative contributions of encore pioneers?

Jan, Roger and Michael focused on the many special feature of the innovative PCC Gerontology program, which is designed around the special gifts and needs of mature adult learners, especially adults who are undertaking life-wide changes in their full-on adulthoods. (I’m using “full-on adulthood” rather than “mid-life” as who the hell knows when mid-life actually is? You only know when the middle was when you get to the end! As well, the students in the PCC program range widely in age – the most experientially- precocious student is in her 80s!)

My role in the workshop was to serve as a provocateur, to be the person who made sure that the many special features of the innovative PCC program were surfaced and made visible to audience members. Also — between you and me – I had an ulterior motive as a member of the facilitation team: I wanted to highlight how Jan and her people, faculty and students alike, embody and enact true collaboration, not only in the context of PCC, but beyond and throughout the community (local, statewide and national).

They didn’t have to include me as a member of their facilitation team, but they did. And they didn’t have to feature and give props to the Gero-Punk Project, but they did. Thanks, comrades!

Next up for me? Tomorrow morning, March 5^th, my fantastic colleague and friend (and former graduate student) Cynthia McKee and I will be co-facilitating a workshop, No longer invisible: Co-creating a “Gerontology: The basics” course with housekeeping staff at a university-based retirement community.

The timing of our presentation, which is about creating the causes and conditions for service staff to empower themselves through education, couldn’t be better or more ironically timed. I discovered only this morning that the hotel where the conference is being held and in which we are staying is in a protracted labor dispute with their workers, who are being prevented from organizing and unionizing.

Stay-tuned for more juicy tales of Gero-Punk Praxis….

On Thursday, February 11^th, 2016, I got to have a Gero-Punk play-date at The Treehouse!

You see, I embarked upon a field trip to Easthampton, Massachusetts, for a day of collaborative inquiry with members of The Treehouse Community, a vibrant intentional community created to enact a powerful model of serving children and families in the foster care system:

Established in 2006, the Treehouse Community is a geographically contained, multigenerational, planned neighborhood where adoptive families, their children and elders invest in one another’s lives. It is a village where children find not just parents and a home, but also grandparents, playmates and an entire neighborhood designed to help them grow up in a secure and nurturing environment.

My friend Libby Hinze is responsible for cooking up the field trip. Libby is working on her MSW at Smith College, specializing in Gerontological social work. Her thesis project focuses on the role of older adults in intentional intergenerational communities such as The Treehouse Community in MA (or at the wonderful Bridge Meadows, in Portland, OR). Libby is interesting in understanding more deeply the ongoing meaning-making processes engaged in by elders living in such communities, why they decided to move to and be a part of the community, how they construct their roles and responsibilities in the community, and what gives them a sense of vitality.

To explore these and other questions, Libby and I co-facilitated an elder-lead symposium, What a meaningful life! We gathered with the elders of the community for most of the day. In the essay below, Libby shares what the experience was like from her perspective.

–Jenny

What a Successful Play-date!

by

Libby Hinze

What a successful play-date! You never know how play-dates will go, so when it turns out to be so good it seems vitally important to celebrate the experience of playing with friends old and new. The fun I had with this gaggle of gals happened but a few weeks ago (my apologies for not sharing my joy earlier; these kind of delays are a common theme in my graduate school student life). I enticed my friend and colleague Jenny Sasser to come all the way from Oregon to play with us, although I am not sure it is actually that difficult to entice “Dr. Sassy” to come play with a group of women (who prefer to be called the “Hot Mamas”!) who live in an intentional intergenerational community called The Treehouse.

Ever since our play-date on Thursday, February 11th, 2016, my life has been one big mad dash from this duty to that, and the sweetness and calm of that day now seem to be months ago rather than just days. Since our visit on that cold windy February day I have thought a lot about these women but it wasn’t until last night when I woke up in the middle of an impressive thunder storm, and after a somewhat reoccurring dream, that I was able to formulate some deeper thinking about the day’s events.

I will begin with last night’s dream. There is something about last night that holds my attention. The night was turbulent at best. This is typically the coldest time of year here in New England but the weather quickly changed yesterday and we went from a snowy low 30’s to a mild and wild high 50’s. The snowy day turned in to a typical NW down pour. The thunder and lightning began around midnight. Angry, and demanding my attention, the thunder rolled over head. I sat up in bed, the air was filled with electrical charm and I could taste the energy on my tongue. I jostled about for a bit trying to re-position myself in a comfortable way. I don’t know how long it took but eventually I fell back asleep and into a dream. The dream was as turbulent as the night air:

I was walking in a heavy downpour trying to get back to The Treehouse. I had errands to run but the car would not start. I had to feed the kids but the store was closed. I had my books and my backpack but they were getting wet, so wet. I could see dry land across the road. I could see the house up in the tree. People were waving and hollering for me to hurry, it would be dark soon. The water on the road was rising quickly. I began to cross and I could see a car coming. I feared I would not get across. I feared the car would hit me or that I would drown. I made it across, I climbed the stairs to The Treehouse and made my way inside. There was nobody there. I reached in my pocket to grab my phone but it was too wet and wouldn’t work. I wondered where everybody went. I was alone, I could not call out. I was not afraid. I knew they would come back. I knew I was safe. I quietly began to do my work.

This dream reminds me of my day at The Treehouse because the women who showed up to share with us were fearless and passionate about their purposes in life. The paths they choose to journey down in their lives were ones that they were so passionate about that the fear of getting to where they wanted to be was perhaps only momentary and ultimately gave way to a greater outcome. Whether that greater outcome was for the community, the environment, a political stance, or themselves, a greater good it was.

So there they were, here we are: together and alone. Independent, dependent upon and interdependent in this journey of life.

Our mission for the day was to join together with these amazing women and talk about their lives, and who or what inspires them. We explored juicy ideas like meaning making; creating a culture of trust and wisdom; being part of an intergenerational community and the pains of community members who have been lost. We came together. And when we dispersed what I walked away with was a deeper understanding of what it means to be in community with one another and with our own selves.

Some of the characters who played a pivotal role in that day were a minister who facilitates end-of-life discussion groups, a member of The Young at Heart choir, and a woman who walked across the country in solidarity for peace with Mildred Norman, the Peace Pilgrim. There was the grandmother who had been grand-mothering her community all her life. A woman who favored working with children with disabilities and a woman who was one of the pioneers of the Gerontological movement. She was instrumental in creating some of the first community-based programs on aging. These women are busy and it seems to me all their activity did not start after retirement but has been a way of life and a source of energy for them throughout their lives. Watching them certainly got me thinking about my own life and how my own busyness has evolved and transformed over my years.

It all makes me wonder: What is this busyness everyone is up to? Why are we keeping ourselves so busy? In this moment, while I can honestly say my busyness is a response to the external requirements of graduate school, it is I who signed up for this rigorous program knowing that it would be busy and the work would be intense. I think my sense of overwhelming busyness also has to do with how I choose to do the work and how I choose to show up in my life. We did not talk about this “how do you show up in your life” per se with the group, but each participant certainly demonstrated how they choose to participate in the activities that bring meaning to their lives. I mean — here they were spending their afternoon with us, total strangers, and diving in to what makes sense in this moment, and how to be pioneers of new and inventive ways to age in better ways. They didn’t just show up, these women showed up with intention and spirit, inquisitiveness and heart. It seems to make sense to me that this is how they always choose to do the work they do and their busyness has less to do with being busy and more to do with the intention and heart they put in to doing what they love.

One of my favorite authors, Parker Palmer, wrote, “Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other. It is not about the presence of other people-it is about being fully open to the reality of relationship, whether or not we are alone.” Parker reminds me that maybe, just maybe, all this busyness is not about being busy at all. Maybe it is about the richness of our lives, living with others and with ourselves. Maybe it is this richness that brings us courage, wisdom, and faith. It is clear to me that these long-lived souls whom I met at The Treehouse live their lives with intention and depth.

Maybe it is not so much about how much we do, but the intention with which we do what we are doing.

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Libby Hinze is a master’s student in Social Work at Smith College in Northampton, MA. Born and raised in Portland, Or. She has her BA in Human Studies from Marylhurst University and is a certified gerontologist. Currently she is doing her second year internship at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA. in the Inpatient Palliative Care and Geriatric Department. She is the single mother of two fabulous young women and the auntie and great-auntie to many more. Her goal after graduation is to return to Oregon and host a gathering where her street is lined right down the middle with a long table where there is room for all to gather and enough food for all.

Palmer, P. (2004). A hidden wholeness: The journey toward an undivided life. San Francisco,    CA: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

The Gero-Punk Salon on Self-Care gave us the opportunity to reflect with others on our programmed ideas of how we take care of ourselves. Thoughts swirled around the room as people began to discuss the complex ways self-care can LOOK (Netflix marathon, cleaning, playing), FEEL (frustrating, freeing) and SOUND (negative self-talk, kind words from close friends).

Here is a collage of images and words from some of the participants which capture the rich complexity of a Gero-Punk perspective on self-care.

                        –Dana Rae Parker, with Jenny Sasser

 Spending time with other brilliant minds talking about self-care was a very nourishing act. My two favorite take-away: Thinking more about my self-partnership. Asking myself the questions: So? What if?

–Laura

 He, She, We, They, The

Gero-Punk a diverse group

Play, discern chatter

PBJ, Susie

 Jenny asked Susie, “What does PBJ stand for?” Susie says,

“PBJ is a closing salutation that arrived in my thoughts one day and made me smile because while it came in as Peace, Blessings, Joy; it of course could also mean peanut butter and jam. So that it came in as the initials meaning the first, one could infer the other.  Both good food and very nourishing for my inner child.  It is silly and quizzical, I don’t use it often, but love when it dares to find its way to out to entice play.”

–art by Dana Rae

William, a seasoned Gero-Punk Salon attendee, shares that the first Salon of the 2016 season was, “a meeting of the minds and hearts.” William’s main takeaways being “wisdom remembrance as an antidote to wisdom amnesia, and partnering with those who inspire me to self-affirm my joyous heart as an antidote to the self-dishonoring narratives I spin in my head. Thank you…for facilitating the reminders and the inspiration.”

As people shared their stories on how we distinguish and consume messages of self-care, more questions emerged from our Gero-Punk-inspired minds.

Lulu offers us some of these questions and in turn honest advice for guilt-free self-love:

Yesterday I attended my first Gero-Punk Salon…I got the chance to unpack and take in meaningful and powerful conversation with a group of amazing people.

We discussed the idea of self-care:

What does that mean? What does it look like? How can we practice it, and, for me, come away without feeling guilty?

We live in a society that holds an iron fist to productivity. We are often made to feel lazy, distracted, un-focused etc. for choosing to take time for ourselves.  My take away from yesterday’s conversation, my new mantra, is to always practice maintaining my authenticity. This is the best way I can care for myself. Own who I am, and CELEBRATE who I am, without guilt or burden. We are constantly changing, always evolving. I should give myself more freedom for fluidity and let go of some of the restraints that I have internalized. Be kind to myself. By taking care of myself, I can, in turn, better care for others. I think it’s safe to say I’m officially converted into the Gero-Punk frame of mind. I can’t wait to see where the journey takes us.

— Lulu

Emily is an undergraduate student focusing on Gerontology. She works at the Continuing Care Retirement Community next door to her university. She offered the following:

Getting together with the Gero-Punks is always a good time. The diversity of the group could not be better made. We took the simplest topic of self-care and blew it up… Sure, we can exercise, eat right, and do what society tells us is self-care, but does that really help everyone? It was pleasant to hear I am not alone when I say I struggle to meet these expectations. We each had our own idea of self-care. What an extremely rewarding concept to come across in a world full of cookie cutter solutions to help heal one-self. I walked away knowing that I can take care of myself as a really young old person, I just have to listen to what my inner child needs.

Do I need an ice cream or a nap?

Maybe I need to clean my room to feel a little more at peace with my cluttered mind. Or I could just be too much of a hermit in need of a good laugh with a friend. Every situation is different; self-care is not an easy task when we don’t understand how it works, but If we think a little outside the box we will find just what we need to do to make everything just a little better. That being said, I look forward to my next life lesson from the Gero-Punk project.

                                                              –Emily

Keeping up with our developing authenticity through our travels through life calls for focused energy. How do we maintain this internal dialogue, while conversing with our daily activities, partnerships and obligations? There is not a one-size-fits-all self-care package, as Emily alludes and in her realization there is individual freedom. This freedom is outside of our capitalistic culture, which pushes us towards costly and competitive self- care strategies and products. This freedom to live outside of mainstream messages of self-worth and care offers a path outside of linear time. We can travel through time and ask what we needed in the past to feel loved, how we currently nurture our dreams and body in order to be happy and well in the future.

The words of these contributors and attendees of the Gero-Punk Salon have taught me that we all hold the power to move magically through time and observe our aging journey as individuals and collectively in a radically different way.

Will you join us in this journey? Will you join yourself in this journey?

–Dana Rae

Dana Rae Parker is a Mississippi Gulf Coast native with 10 years on Northwest soil. They enjoy watching the magic of nature and water creatures on their houseboat on the Columbia River. Dana-Rae enjoys laughter, curiosity, art, magic, and internal / collective revolution on the soul level!

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LuLu McCoskey is a recently graduated gero-punk who spends her time combating ageism and doing her part to change the world one day and person at a time. She enjoys spending time with her family, getting lost in the woods, creating art and spoiling her favorite cat, Sylvie.

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Laura Jones is a musician, single mother, social activist and recent graduate of Marylhurst University. She spends her work and volunteer time networking, community organizing and providing social support to a wide variety of people. Her most recent act of social activism is writing about radical compassion. Being a Gero-punk helps to inform her life, mindset and interactions through a positive anarchist lens.

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 Emily may seem like the quiet type, but don’t let that fool you.  She loves to challenge society’s idea of the aging process. She likes to refer to herself as a “young-old person.”  Emily enjoys nature walks, snuggling with her fur-babies, and jamming out in her car to her favorite music.