As opposed to countries like Japan ”” instilled with a deep appreciation for ancestry and the wisdom of elders ”” the U.S. is, if not unappreciative of its elders, more defined by youth culture.
Jerome Kerner of cross-border Lewisboro, N.Y., and the national “Sage-ing” movement are trying to change that.
“In older societies before the industrial age and among indigenous peoples it is the elders who were looked at for tradition, storytelling and wisdom,” Kerner said. “We are dealing with a culture that thinks only youth is beautiful, or that ageing only brings problems like adult diapers or skin creams.”
Through day-long workshops Kerner brings together groups of up to 20 elders who are willing to discuss their past and their mortality and share those thoughts with their communities.
“It is about hearing others, not trying to fix them,” he said. “That creates a much deeper and gratifying relationship. In a society that embraces the elder, it is not what you look like or how you move it is what you have to give from a deeper place, a place of carrying on tradition and what you know about life.”
Founded in 2004, Sage-ing International is a nonprofit organization that seeks to foster meaning in the second half of life. A popular phrase of the organization reads: “From age-ing to Sage-ing.”
With chapters sparsely spread across the U.S. and Canada, Kerner is the only certified Sage-ing leader in the Westchester/Fairfield County region.
He has held several workshops in Westchester County and as far away as Maryland. He now plans to expand his workshops to Connecticut with a planned event in Wallingford on April 9 and a tentative workshop in the works with Temple Shearith in Ridgefield.
Katonah resident Jo Voege is in her seventies and participated in one of Kerner”™s workshops, which she said helped her to gain perspective on the legacy she will leave children and grandchildren.
“I found it very interesting and deep,” she said. “We spent some time, looking backwards at our lives, the good, the bad, any feelings we had maybe about where we need forgiveness. Then we looked forward at what we might want to do with some of our talents and what goals we may be thinking about in the future. It made us really focus and examine our lives.”
Sharing the gifts of a lifetime”™s worth of knowledge and experience through service and legacy are the primary focus of the workshops, Kerner said.
“The goal is to create an atmosphere where the elder is not only respected, but encouraged to remain active and not to be isolated,” he said. “The passing on of who you are as a person and what your values are, what your life”™s philosophy was, so that grandchildren, great grandchildren and future generations will have an ability to know you from that perspective.”
For more information about the Sage-ing workshops, contact Jerome Kerner at 914-763-6911.
