Growing We the People (Growing a More Human Community)

Growing We the People invites people with life experience to reduce community fears and form protective attachments that are rich in relational joy, peace and hope. Human maturity requires timely training that matches the biological development in our brains and bodies to what our communities provide. Seniors are the full scale model of what the last generation of training and effort have produced. Growing We the People (the third in the Growing a More Human Community series) combines 1) observations from many cultures, 2) important developmental deadlines for the brain and 3) spiritual teachings to produce a model for life as seniors and grandparents share their success and failures. These lessons about the purpose for customs, beliefs and practices let us learn from cultural patterns that are rapidly disappearing as communities change. Many seniors are uncertain about what they offer in an age of rapid change. Seniors with earned maturity offer stability and perspective. Building trusting relationships and dealing with predatory tendencies (in families, neighborhoods and spiritual communities) greatly needs what seniors have to offer.