Theme:
How old is old and when do you stop learning? Glenn Capelli explores his Learning Heroes, people who have developed a lifelong passion for learning and continue to enjoy life right up to a ripe old age. Today we explore old dogs, new tricks and honouring lifelong talents.
If I were to mention the word Jordan what comes to mind? Perhaps you might think of a beautiful though often troubled place in the world, or the magical ex-basketball player Michael Jordan or even you may conjure a picture of a youngish British woman with very large appendages going by the name of Jordan (the woman and the appendages I believe). But for me, the name Jordan represents a different kind of sheila – Sheila Jordan.
Chances are if this name means anything to you, you are a jazz fan.
In 2008 Sheila Jordan recorded a CD titled Winter Sunshine her 21st album release in her 80th year on the planet. In her 81st year I heard her being interviewed on New York radio, she was asked how she felt after completing two sets of music at a jazz club late the night before. She said she felt brilliant and that singing kept her young and alive.
You gotta love that.
In a recent survey from the UK people were asked to ‘name the age at which you become old aged’ and the majority of people answered 70. It may be true for some, that 70 marks old age, but for others 70 is just when they are starting to hit their straps.
I love folk who set the example of life long learning; the Learning Heroes who continue to dedicate themselves to the art, science and fun of their craft. Sociologist Ashley Montagu made it to 95 and was active to the last moment. George Burns was cracking jokes in his late 90s. Gough Whitlam’s 90 year’s plus old tongue remained as sharp as his mind. Philanthropist and Matriarch Dame Elisabeth Murdoch hit a sprightly 100 in 2009.
I know that many folk believed the live fast, die young and have a nice looking corpse adage but no corpse is as good looking as one that has lived a long life full of inspired learning. Young corpses are just sad.
The founder of the Servant-Leadership movement Robert Greenleaf said that ‘your first sixty years on the planet are just to find out what you really want to do and then to spend the rest of your life doing it’. He retired from his first job in his sixties and spent the next twenty years travelling the planet teaching his concept of leadership as a form of service to others.
And consider these:
• Conrad Ferdinand Meyer had never written a poem in his life till he reached 51 and then went onto become the national poet of Switzerland
• Jean Auel had never published and was in her 40s when she got the idea for a short story that eventually became the novel Clan of the Cave Bear the start of her Earth’s Children series that has sold over 34 million copies worldwide to date
• Celebrated Western Australian writer Elizabeth Jolley first published aged 51
I once spoke at an American Conference about the concept of taking a lifetime to develop your talents and discovering new talents later in life. A chap came up to me afterwards and handed me a little badge that had ‘It is never too late to have a happy childhood’ stamped on it. He then told me how he had overcome some of his early lack of esteem and a particularly harsh childhood and later in life had taken to painting, writing and learning a new language.
I far prefer his badge to the adage ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’. New and deeper learning is where the challenge and excitement of life is. It’s never too late to tackle some new challenge, never too late to explore and never too late to put some sparkle in your eyes even if the eyes don’t see quite as sharply as before.
At 81 Sheila Jordan can still jazz with the best of them. Like a lot of musicians she had her years when alcohol and substances threatened to end her career and even her life. She said that one day in her thirties whilst in a drug haze she heard a voice that said to her ‘Sheila, I have given you your voice as a gift. If you don’t honour it, I will take it away and give it to someone else’. The voice slapped her back into positive action.
I love this message. Whether we are eighteen or eighty our talents are a gift and it is our duty to discover them, believe in them, develop them and use them well.
I hope at 80 or 90 to be tackling a Masters Thesis in the Karma Sutra or at least to be learning the clarinet, perhaps even doing both at the same time.
Learning Heroes keep on keeping on.
Where to from here:
• At what age do we become old aged?
• Do you know any learning heroes? Folks who just keep learning and enjoying life
• Are you learning anything new late in life? An instrument, a language, a new hobby, a deeper wisdom in life?
• Interview the wonderful folk from University of the Third Age
Thinking Caps book by Glenn Capelli now in Book Stores or from www.glenncapelli.com
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