Elders and The Sacred
From the Dagara Perspective: Relationships of Healing the Community….
” There is an elder in making in everyone, but it is most visible in those who have the receptivity to listen to the stories of others. The ability to listen, and the willingness to support others in difficult situations are the heart and the soul of elder-hood.
If people of the West embraced the idea that the elder is at the edge, between two worlds, and is therefore a window to the Other World as well as a mirror to it, certain of the West’s social problems would be solved. One of them is the rejection of aging and the elders, which puts the culture at risk. The other is the West’s relationship to the sacred.
There is not doubt that in Western culture, the fear of aging has become quite acute. People certainly have many reasons to think that old age is not something to look forward to. But in light of what has been said about elders in an indigenous African context, one could explain Western fear of old age as linked to the sense of uselessness. If in Western society people would find ways in their old age of spending their abundant time with their grandchildren, perhaps this would raise the appreciation of old age and pave the road for a more sacred approach to being old. For if to get old is to get close to the ancestors, then old means that which is closest to the sacred.
If culture rejects the sacred, it rejects elders. If it rejects elders, it rejects the welfare of its youth. You can’t have the one without the other. It is understood in the village that youth and the elders are the ones in society who see clearly what is happening. The young are at an age where the hidden is obvious to their eyes. They want to point it out because they do not know how to pretend it is not there.
To be young and old in the modern world is to be at risk. People who wish to embrace their elderhood must first listen to the pain around them. They must notice in the young and the adult parts that are craving visibility. We must learn how to sit quietly with our youth and to listen quietly to what they have to say. This is the job of the elders. This calm, almost meditative approach to youth can also be a model for self-calming to other people who are too troubled to be quiet. Calmness is the beginning of the ability to hold space, the beginning of an elder’s contribution to the community.”
Excerpted from …THE HEALING WISDOM OF AFRICA..
by Dr. Malidoma Some…via Baba Wesley Gray
Jogo Corpo Fechado 