Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: aging in community

[Monty Berman (mberman116]

To: Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah <welcome@olympus.net9/18
What comes up for me is to institute a "training" of some sort which exercises 
the brain/uses one's brain.
I can think of many of these and you probably could, too.
I would do a workshop and/or provide a course that has personal appeal.
Make it required (perhaps). It is a concern that you raise.
Monty
 
Monty Berman  EcoVillage at Ithaca, founding member.
Adjunct lecturer, Psychology    SUNY Empire State College


  There is only one absolute Truth, and all other
truths emanate from it. When you find that Truth, your actions will be in
alignment with it. The Truth is inseparable from who you are. Yes, you are
the Truth. If you look for it elsewhere, you will be deceived every time. The
very Being that you are is Truth . . . When you are in touch with this
dimension within your self . . . all your actions and relationships will
reflect the oneness with all life that you sense deep within. This is love. On
the other hand, laws, commandments, rules, and regulations are necessary only
for those who are cut off from who they are, from the Truth within.
                                                                                
              
Eckhart Tolle
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> 
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 22:11:08 -0700
> From: Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah <welcome [at] olympus.net>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ aging in community
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Message-ID: <E8E024F4-9E2F-47A6-A54E-6DDC5170C8D6 [at] olympus.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
>  I've seen references to the community challenges of caring for people who 
> are increasingly less able physically. 
> 
> I would raise a different question (and this is relevant in our community 
> where a number of us -- some of the most active members -- are 60-70-80 years 
> old). What about the potential loss of mental abilities? We already see some 
> mental decline in an older member who had a stroke: they process information 
> more slowly, get easily confused, may insist on a point of view that the rest 
> of us see as clearly out of line with the facts. We have repeatedly found 
> ourselves in a situation where we lacked consensus not because this one 
> person disagreed with the proposal, but because they simply didn't understand 
> it yet. And weren't willing to consent to what they hadn't understood. This 
> is frustrating, and somewhat demoralizing for those who've worked hard to get 
> a proposal to where there are no substantive objections to it. 
> 
> So what if we get to the point where several of us aren't catching on or 
> aren't making sense? I'd like to think that, if it were me, I'd say, "Gee, I 
> don't understand, but all these people I trust think it's ok, so it must be." 
> (I already do this for some of the financial stuff!) But if I really weren't 
> firing on all cylinders, that might not be how I'd react. 
> 
> We have younger members too, but I can see how it would be a major problem to 
> have even two or three members who couldn't think straight. 
> 
> Any thoughts on this? Interventions? '
> 
> Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
> Port Townsend WA
> RoseWind Cohousing -- long built, and quite functional: so far! 
> 
> ------------------------------
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> End of Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 116, Issue 21
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