What continues to amaze me as I get further into to my revisions to this website. I began writing this as a book shortly after I came home from the hospital and yet it has taken on a life of its own. It’s too large now for a website. But tagged in with some of my earlier writings, it has become book length. I didn’t think that I could do it. Near as I can tell, it’s a little known process within us all known as Aging that keeps me going. That in varying degrees keep us all going.

Bottom line, this book is about how our Aging can contribute positively to the ongoing integration and balance of an ecologically-aware and, yes, even cosmically-aware outlook on life. Well, at least, an outlook that is four dimensional and not just three dimensional. It is something that we all will have to do. Bit by bit. Person by person.

Beyond MINDFULNESS and SOULFULNESS, it will be a PEACEFULNESS that begins with in and grows outward as a common expression of our humanity. We will be letting ourselves take a giant albeit a new step forward in the evolution of our humanity. It has been my experience thus far that the best we can do to keep up with an ever-changing WORLD is to tap into the all-encompassing strength of our basic humanity and let it guide us.

Beyond MINDFULNESS and SOULFULNESS: Aging as PEACEFULNESS.

Beyond mindfulness and soulfulness, there is a state of being called PEACEFULNESS. There we can pause in life to recover our sense of who we are and rethink our ideas of SELF and WORLD. There we can reflect on the purpose and meaning of our lives and redefine our participation in and contribution to society and even to humanity at large.

But to take advantage of the way we are equipped from birth, it seems that we will first have to recognize that our learning is four dimensional as is the world around us - 1) physical, 2) intellectual, 3) emotional and 4) spiritual. To do this, we will have to integrate our learning and we will have to balance ourselves, our MINDFULNESS with our SOULFULNESS as PEACEFULNESS. We will have to recommit and strengthen our resolve as individual members of a humanity connected person to person by a universal love and linked one generation to the next by an over-riding sense of universal continuity.

The lifelong process by which we do all learn and develop and grow throughout our lives becoming known as “Ageing.” To add to the confusion, there are even two spellings of the word - Aging and Ageing. To avoid confusion, I have chosen to use the spelling Ageing in the development of this ongoing research. In fact, Aging is the accepted spelling for those of us living in North America; Ageing is the accepted spelling for the United Kingdom and other countries of the world. And that’s the point isn’t it?. We have to think globally at the very least because Ageing is a universal process. It’s something that we all go through by reason of our being of one species. That’s the challenge of tomorrow’s world - getting back on track toward a common human destiny, that is, a world that is more loving and caring.

Ageing is often confused with getting older and regarded negatively whereas it is a positive life force that can be made stronger through awareness. Moreover, Ageing is often obscured by our seeing life three dimensionally, and not four dimensionally. What happens developmentally is that we are more open to life as four dimensional (physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual) in the first six years of our lives. Our learning 1 - 6 years therefore as has a stronger spiritual component. A sense of wonder and awe. And we grow accordingly.

This is less so when we are involved in our education and employment years. We see life as more three dimensional. It is the way we have created the world that we live in. Then when we are older we open ourselves up to a four dimensional world of discovery. The problem today is that we have created a three dimensional world to our own liking. We are educated and employed to conform to it.

After when we are retired, we have to redirect our learning. One of the residents where I live explained it to me this way while we were paused side by side in our walkers in an afternoon walk: “When you get older its like living on the edge. You are past the boundaries of conventional knowledge and wisdom. You are on your own fully loaded road to discovery. Even the physical dimension of life and for sure, the spiritual dimension. It’s scary and yet its so exciting.”

Not surprisingly, Aging by whatever spelling s now being recognized in most fields of inquiry as the ongoing inner life force that sets in motion our lifelong search for purpose and meaning. individually and collectively. Personally, aging identifies us with the inner peace of humanity as a whole within the context of a global society and even a cosmic reality. Personally and politically together, it is both revolutionary and evolutionary in that it not only connects us person to person in the immediate of “now” but it places us in context one generation to the next. As a result of Ageing, we become part and parcel of humanity itself! We arrive at the path of PEACEFULNESS.

2. LEFT BRAIN versus RIGH BRAIN THEORY: Aging as a LIFELONG PROCESS.

Neuroscience is not my professional field of study but I was in private practice as a family and child therapist and community development consultant for 25 years before retiring. I am more familiar with psychosocial theories of human growth and development, that is theories and research findings related to SELF/WORLD interactions at various levels of living from family through to global community. Add to this, I am now retired and 86 and so I tend to view life through a slightly different lens of discovery than earlier in my life. Physically, intellectually, emotionally and yes, even spiritually, my life experiences have changed and I have had to adjust.

There’s a possible explanation and some simple suggestions as to how we can maximize our brain power based on what I discovered in the course of my practice and experienced personally and politically as I have moved through life. The crossover learning from one field of inquiry to another is already proving useful to parents and children, teachers and students and even to workers and co-workers as we move into the post-pandemic era of social and economic development is already proving useful. It’s even more important in today when our energies are still being sapped from SELF by the likes of COVID-19 and our WORLD is being rapidly diminished by a host of problems emanating from our present global lifestyle.

It all relates back to the fact that our brains have two hemispheres - a left hemisphere that thinks materialistically and logically and a right hemisphere that thinks emotionally and intuitively. Both are identical in structure but very different in function. The left hemisphere is more interested in the physical and intellectual dimensions of life. The right hemisphere is more focused on the emotional and spiritual dimensional life. And we are actively involve day by day in the reconciliation of the two, at two levels of functioning, personal and political. The one involves MINDFULNESS learning; the other, SOULFULENSS learning.

Moreover, the MINDFULNESS learning of the one (left) and the SOULFULNESS learning of the other (right) are harnessed together by a broad band of millions of neurons. Neuroscientists call this internalized information highway connecting left brain with right brain the “Corpus Callosum.” It not only relays information from one hemisphere to the other to create a four dimensional outlook on life (physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual), it also integrates our knowledge and balances our perception of SELF and WORLD, of MINDFULNESS learning and SOULFULNSS learning as ONE. Hence, the powerful interest that we have in the purpose (left hemisphere) and meaning (right hemisphere) of life and in dialogue (Corpus Callosum). It’s the underlying motivation in all that we do. It’s our basic humanity after all.

From a more practical point of view, think of it this way: we can double and even triple our brain power simply by being more aware of the two hemispheres of our brain and of the marvelous work of the Corpus Callosum in integrating any new learning and balancing ourselves personally and politically. No wonder we are tempted to computerize the coordination work of the Corpus Callosum by using hand held devises for ourselves personally or at work. But without fully recognizing the two hemispheres and the efforts of the Corpus Callosum, we short change ourselves in the long run.

In fact, we are leaving ourselves exposed educationally to the continuation of a 3D rather than a 4D concept of development simply because computers advance our ongoing decision making so speedily - without taking the time our to reflect so to speak. In a Post-Pandemic environment, this is especially the case. So what can we do individually to keep what knowledge and wisdom that we have integrated as we continue to learn and ourselves balanced personally and politically?

3. LIFE’S FOUR MOST BASIC QUESTIONS: Aging as a PERSONAL PROCESS.

The Corpus Callosum is meant to get us beyond the separate learning streams of MINDFULNESS and SOULFULNESS that exist - left hemisphere versus right hemisphere - to the oneness of PEACEFULNESS. In this way, our brains are working 24/7 - nanosecond by nanosecond and even faster - on our behalf, with or without our knowledge. Thus we can increase the power of our brains simply by challenging it with our awareness. We can talk to it, so to speak.

In addition to two hemispheres, researchers have found that our brains have 8 senses feeding our awareness of the world around us, not 5. Instead of just the 5 basic sense of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching, it has three additional senses - a sense of SELF, a sense of OTHERS or WORLD and a sense of SOMETHING BIGGER. More, the brain is an organ just like our heart. It has plasticity and is constant need of growing and expanding its information base and overall notion not only of SELF/WORLD but also of our humanity.

From my own personal experience and in review of my professional practice as a family and child therapist and community development consultant, it seems that there are Four Basic Questions that the Corpus Callosum is open to and that can be used to guide it in its work on our behalf:

1) who am I?

2) what’s it all about?

3) where do I fit in? and

4) why are we here?

It seems also that these questions are progressive, that is, that we move from one to the other and back again as we are asking them. It creates a sort of looping with the answers to the one building on the answers to the other. So it’s not so much the answers to these questions as it is the questions themselves that feed into the two streams of learning basic to our development and growth as individuals - development of SELF and the growth of SOUL. Increasingly, professionals in neuroscience through to my field of family and child therapy and community development work are identifying this process as Aging. It’s literally the process of turning knowledge into wisdom.

The two learning processes basic to the Left Brain and Right Brain have to be constantly “fed” - or else they will make things up. Getting back to basics takes on a new meaning. It means taking the time to reach back to the universal love that joins us all, one persona to another and generation to the next. The brain like any other of our organ is in a constant state of growth and development. It has what neuroscientists call “plasticity.” Routinely asking ourselves life’s four most basic question is a way of reminding our selves of this. and of exercising our most basic organ, the two sided brain.

4. PURPOSE and MEANING - Aging as a POLITICAL PROCESS.

It seems that this kind of four dimensional self-questioning has always been going on. An inner conversation, perhaps? Day by day? Second by second? Timeless? But we are just now recognizing this two hemisphere, double-learning brain phenomenon. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic and our response to it is intensifying the need for it. This extra power is going to be needed more and more in today’s Post-Pandemic Era because the Corpus Callosum is already being overworked - even overwhelmed - leaving us stressed and indecisive. Add to this, the raft of environmental issues coming our way due to global warming. Our humanity’s capacity as a whole is going to be tested as never before and we as individuals are feeling it.

Fortunately, we can enable our brains in their work simply by being as aware as possible of what’s going on within us individually and enjoying the brains activity. The recent popularity of meditation and of tapping into universal love is one way. But MINDFULNESS and SOULFULNESS are the major learning streams leading to PEACEFULNESS. Again, it’s a ongoing process that we call “Aeging.” It’s a Lifelong Process that we can participate in, that we can actively direct. just by being aware of it! So Ageing is something that we do; Growing old is just something that happens to us.

More importantly to us as individuals and to the ongoing progress of humanity itself, Ageing is a recently discovered process of awareness within us that begins at birth and that strives lifelong in its ongoing search for purpose and meaning. It is the centuries-old internal guardian of our personal and political humanity. More than ever before is, it is now in need of being re-awakened and of being enriched by our renewed participation in and contribution to the world around us. Seemingly we are approaching a new level of our evolution as a humanity. Certainly, our interest in the purpose and meaning of our lives within the context of a global ecology is intensifying.

I should add that for the longest while in the course of my career development, I was caught up in debates about human nature and the extent of our humanity. I read and studied across professions from psychology to philosophy fascinated by the ideas of others that resonated with the voice within me. The brains coordinated as one are truly amazing!

Within my intended profession, there was a very basic debate going on – one that still exists today. We argued about what was Freudian versus Jungian psychology and sociology was most heavy duty statistics to study social trends and to perform individual testing. I was attracted to Social Work as a career largely because of its basic commitment to the values of dignity and worth ass applied to all people equally. This commitment was carried forward by three basic methodologies: Casework, Groupwork and Social Action. Much of this thinking exists today. Two theories of services delivery and intervention support it: Freudian theory tends to be more negative in its outlook and more three dimensional; Jungian theory is more four dimensional:

I have worked out a fourfold classification corresponding to the functions of sensation, thinking, feeling, and intuition. Each of these functions varies according to the general attitude (introverted and extroverted), and thus eight variations are produced. I have been asked most reproachfully why I speak of four functions and not of more or fewer. That there are exactly four is a matter of empirical fact. But as the following consideration will show, certain completeness is attained by these four. Sensation establishes what is actually given, thinking enables us to recognize its meaning, feeling tells us its value, and finally intuition points to the possibilities of the when and whither that lie within the immediate facts. Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, 1933

Jung thought that his therapy sessions were mutual learning opportunities for himself as well as his clients so not surprisingly he likened these four functions to the four point of the compass guiding us in the process of our self-discovery that applied equally to himself:

The four functions are just as arbitrary and just as indispensable as the direction of a compass and I confess openly that I would not for anything dispense of this compass on my psychological journey of discovery. Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, 1933

Whereas Freud recognized an “id”, an “ego” and a “superego”, Jung also recognized three interactive processes – individualization, socialization and humanization. By adding to this the four functions of sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition and an overriding sense of spirituality and the notion of the whole person who participated in this ongoing process of growth and development, Jung was much more optimistic about the human journey. Aging after all, is a search for purpose and meaning, not the one or the other but both.

Since the Freudian versus Jungian debate over human nature that is ongoing even today, there has been the addition of a process of “cosmozation” added to Jung’s three process of individualization, socialization and humanization by theoretician talking across the professions. No doubt this because our awareness of our SELVES in a WORLD has been expanded by space travel and an awareness of the universe and our part it. This plus the even more recent introduction has caused major revisions to our interdisciplinary thinking about ourselves as humanity as whole. Left Brain Right Brian theory builds best on a Jungian base. The implications of two brain theory, left and right brain, that generate two streams of learning converged into one by a Corpus Callosum, were missed back when I was practicing.

At present and as I write this, I find myself relying more and more on Jungian theory to provide continuity to my increasing awareness of Left Brain versus Right Brain theory. My circumstances seem to require this of me to find my way through a rather difficult time in my life. I am recovering from a major cancer operation in which a large patch of my scalp, a gland under my left read and 20% of my lymph nodes under my jaw line had to be removed. At the time, I was wait in line for an operation for spinal stenosis on two vertebrate of my spine. That operation is still pending and I am on a maximum of hydromorphone to kill the pain. But surprisingly my brain is still quite active and my attitude is still quite positive. It’s what I am free to do now – write about inner peace and its outward expression. I am fascinated by its power.

I am fortunate and forever grateful. I have four care workers daily, a physiotherapist and massager therapist, three special cancer surgeons (for lymph node cancer, bladder cancer, skin cancer) and one special surgeon for spinal stenosis and a nurse practitioner organize all of this expertise. I am very fortunate. All of the members of this team are identified with me in keeping me going to participate in and contribute to life around me through writing.

All of this – including the life and death circumstances of my medical situation – is not unusual among residents. In fact, there are resident here who talk with me in the halls who have even more medical problems and who are even more optimistic about life – “Take one day at a time,” they say instructively. And some will add to that: “It’s better than the alternative.” Or some others just plain: “It is what it is.” And finally: “Enjoy.” So in this way, I feel that I am a part of an informal movement towards the expression of wisdom, toward the free expression of happiness. There is an acceptance of life for what it is in the elderly. It’s sa sort of “peacefulness” that I can identify with. It’s not that we take life lightly. Quite that opposite somehow. It’s precious and I find that we are have a high regard for it as such.

However, CODVI-19 has tended to interrupt the flow of SELF/WORLD discovery. Instead it has introduced divisive issues: 1) Vaccines versus fee will. 2) Social distancing versus shaking hands and embracing. 3) Masks versus smiling and talking conversationally. 4) Computer versus one on one learning. It’s a strange series of adjustments indeed as viewed in the light of Left brain versus right brain. Our collective Corpus Callosum will have to work overtime to develop a new integration of our knowledge and a new balance in our wisdom that is not either/or but all of these core behavior as one enjoyable lifestyle. More, that will recognize all of us equally with sharing our resources within a global community. Seems impossible? Fortunately, our brains are equipped to meet the challenge of a new humanity.

It all seems so grandiose. But at a certain time in the aging process given we are in the right place for it, we become an elder. We can speak our minds freely. Writing at 2:00 am body rhythm, quiet space or what? But regardless I am fascinated by it all. By the flow of ideas. The creativity. But latterly it’s been increasing. Aging after all is a very personal process. As one resident confided in me: If you don’t laugh, you cry.

SO HERE’S THE THING: make friends with your brain. talk to it. help it to bring the two streams of learning, left and right, into one through mutual awareness. help it to integrate the masses of learning flowing our way via the new media. On a very personal note, if you are over 65 help your left brain to accept it and your right to get more active. Time is not a product how we use it makes it so. Place is not a problem just move relative to your conditions

5. An AHA Moment: Aging as REVOLUTION

Very often, new knowledge surfaces in our collective intelligence as radical. It causes us to change our thinking that much and without warning. When I first recognized Left Brain versus Right Brain Theory as a possible explanation of what’s behind the process of “Aging,” it was one of those aha moments. In fact, it was forty years ago, in 1980. I was in private practice as a family and child therapist and community development consultant at the time.

I had been trying to find the connection between SELF and WORLD of my clients by using concepts of a new movement related to ecology and nature related values and I had circulated a discussion paper entitled Human Dialogue and the Emergence of an Ecological Conscience amongst some colleagues. As a result, I was asked by the organizers of the First Global Conference on the Future to be held in Toronto later that year to work on a slide presentation in collaboration with the internationally-known aboriginal artist, Jackson Beardy. That was over 40 years ago!

It was to be my words with Jackson’s drawings. Sort of a left brain versus right brain dialogue, when I think back on it now. As a relatively young man in his early forties, I was thrilled to accept the challenge of collaborating with Jackson! It gave me direct access to the wisdom of his culture combined with what I knew of mine. A sort of North American convergence, so to speak. Jackson was a few years younger than me.

My earlier position paper itself argued in favor of four basic lifestyles or life perspectives that had to be combined as one within ourselves as individuals and within our families and communities globally for human dialogue to be effective as an ecological conscience. Jackson brought his knowledge of the Medicine Wheel to the presentation. Both of us coming from very different cultures had been using what we called Life’s Four Basic Questions (Who, What, Where and Why) to gather and process information about life. Jackson was impressed by this as related to the four direction of the Medicine Wheel that he had known in his childhood.

But Jackson insisted on a fifth life perspective that he wanted to represent by a drawing of Albert Einstein. I didn’t get it at first even though I knew from my various readings and book research that Einstein was multi-layered in his outlook on life. Hence his being to open to discoveries like quantum theory. Jackson was insistent. The next day, he presented me with a drawing of Einstein for consideration as the cover of our presentation. To his way of thinking, it was a reminder of how much we needed - both cultures, his and mine - to be more inclusive of the wisdom of our elders in our global envisioning of a more loving and caring world.

The conference itself attracted over 6,000 participants worldwide and over 60 learned papers on various aspects of the ecology were presented. Concerns related to global warming were central. The conference produced a book entitled Through the 80s with a forward by Manitoba’s Ed Schreyer who was then Governor General of Canada.

“The technological advances of the twentieth century and the opening of instantaneous global communication channels have brought our planet to an unprecedented state of awareness which makes it impossible for a country or a people to live insolation. For better or for worse, our destinies are inextricable linked and we must work together to harness our present and future state of knowledge to make it work to the benefit of all the earth’s inhabitants. The fate of the very next generation of humanity will be altered tremendously by decisions of this next decade especially as regards energy patterns and dependencies.” The Mystery of the Future, Through the 80s, Ed Schreyer..

The book Through the 80’s was a collection of some 60 learned papers presented at the conference. It was modestly titled. Ed Schreyer’s position and that of the others writers included in the collection could have just as easily been written about us today! Only 35 participants were attracted to presentation that Jackson and I made but they were very enthusiastic about our presentation and insightful regarding ongoing dialogue about ecology and global warming in particular. Regardless, I came away from the First Conference on the Future very impressed by the huge number of professionals (over 6,000 participants) who were committed worldwide to its ecological values and by their commitment to global change. Simply Google any University by name plus its research in ecology today to see the wealth of knowledge being made available. Apparently, the leadership of the participants of the conference and others has lasted for the forty years! I regard it today as an expression of our Collective Ageing.

6. RESEARCH and REVISION - Aging as EVOLUTION.

Afterwards largely because of my experience in working with Jackson and others in the indigenous community, I felt that I had to adjust my private practice to take better advantage of the universal love and the ecological principles involved. I had to focus more on community development and I had to rewrite for myself the psychosocial theories of SELF/WORLD that I was using. Naturally, I went back to my book of papers written for the First Conference on the Future. The lead off paper had been written by Frank Feather, the chairman of the conference. It was entitled “Transition to Harmonic Globalism.” It was based on a newly discovered phenomena - Left Brain versus Right Brain Theory. According to Frank Feather, we could use this newly discovered brain power to “think globally while acting locally.” He argued this so convincingly that it was accepted as the theme statement of the First Conference of the Future and eventually of my generation. That was 40 years ago!

Regardless, that’s when I really understood what Jackson had been telling me across cultures back when we were working together on our presentation and when he drew the sketch of Einstein for the cover. It was that we were missing out - locally and globally - on an essential component to our human dialogue. It was the wisdom of elders was not feeding back generation to generation to advance civilization as a whole. It was their collective Ageing that was being undervalued. Back then, researchers and therapist were just beginning to recognize as Ageing positively as a life force. Instead, it was being confused with growing old and devalued as a life process. Whereas without calling it that, I had been working with the aging process as the life force in my private practice. More recently because of my own Ageing, I have had something to add from my years of experience.

Ageing is not growing old. Ageing is something that we do. It’s something that we can have some control over. Growing old is just something that happens to us. It seemed revolutionary at first. Research is like that; a moving target. Particularly when one crosses over from on across fields of study to another. One idea leads to another leads to another. It takes time to move from revolution to evolution.

7. The Importance of SELF-PUBLISHING: Aging as SELF-EXPRESSION

Now that I am retired and 86 years old, I find myself in the “right” space and with the “right” time to devote myself full time to the researching and study of this relatively new and revolutionary topic and to share my findings by way of self-publication. It’s a little over 40 years since I attended the First Global Conference on the Future but there’s doesn’t seem to be much progress sometimes. It’s time to rediscover the basic humanity in all of us. It’s a personal and political process that is ongoing throughout our lives if was keep ourselves open to the basics of universal love. The more of us are aware and can communicate with one another, the better. Authors through years, example. I like to call them “kindred spirits.”

It turns out as I look back through my life, that self-publishing has played an importance role. Without realizing it, I was a pioneer of self-publishing even before my encounter and later work with Jackson Beardy. It relates back to my earlier teaching days at the University of Manitoba that I started. As an instructor in child and family therapy and researcher, I had produced two two booklets for discussion with students - New Hope For Old Ways and Love Within Limits. The first was based on my research in Pittsburgh and the second included 10 essays by students. But being so open about my thinking got me in difficulty with the director of the School of Social Work because, as backup, I used the relatively new thinking of Eric Fromm. Fromm had clearly outlined his thinking in The Art of Loving. In effect, I was formally introducing it into my curriculum.

At the time, the School of Social Work was “Freudian” in its theoretical commitment, not “Jungian.” Whereas I thought it should be both; possibly even other theories beyond the two mixed in. But the dean of the School of Social Work was quite clear: Erik Fromm had been student of Carl Jung and not Sigmund Freud. Simple as that.

As it happened, Eric Fromm went on from writing The Art of Loving in 1956 to co-author Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis with D.T. Suzuki. We were on the front edge of a merger of Western thought with Eastern thinking and the beginning of “think globally, act locally.” I left the University of Manitoba and went into private practice. That was in 1972, eight years before my Aha Moment. It was my beginning impression of Aging as a lifelong process.

The good thing about self-publishing is that the individual writer not only gets to sort out his or her own ideas about life but also gets to expose them to humanity at large without the constraints of an external publisher. It turns out that through the years, I have self-published nine books without realizing it! I have self-published to sort my own thinking out and to contribute what I can to the momentum of civilization as a whole. Possibly, I hope, I would like to be helpful to others who are feeling the need to sort their lives out given the rapidly changing Post-Pandemic world that we live in today. SELF-Publishing is the way that has been a favorite of mine throughout my lifetime. There are many others.

8. FAST-FORWARD TO TODAY - Aging as MINDFULNESS plus SOULFULNESS.

Needless to say, I am an enthusiastic user today of the internet as a research and communications tool today and as a way of reaching out. It’s a powerful means of introducing new ideas and new thinking across the professions and even our every day life. But it’s putting tremendous pressure on us as individuals to use our Corpus Callosum to regulate and give direction to it and on our society to change. It needs the in-put of both our personal and political aging.

The integrating and balancing powers of each one us are being tested. It also is predominantly left brain and not so much right brain ins its delivery. It’s not just content that we have to be aware but also process. Granted today’s computerization is advancing the reading and writing of book-learning but it is also advancing a learning of its own: communication by texting on the one hand as witness our fast-growing dependency on hand-held computers plus a high level imaging as displayed on today’s television.

How we will be able to take advantage of Ageing process with its two methods of learning to create a new global level of communication for ourselves remains to be seen. From a North American point of view, we will need to open ourselves up to this new learning and to be as fully aware as possible to prepare ourselves for tomorrow’s world now in the making.

Above all, Ageing is a universal process. It affects all of us regardless of how we identify ourselves culturally, racially and even globally. Perhaps even beyond that. I was guided throughout my writing of this book by the words of Pierre de Chardin, one of the founders of today’s science. He put it this way:

It is through love and within love that we must look for the deepening of our deepest self, in the life-giving coming together of human kind. Love is the free and imaginative outpouring of the sprit over all unexplored paths. It links those who love in bonds that unite but do no confound, causes them to discover in their mutual contact an exaltation capable, incomparably more than any arrogance of solitude, of arousing in the heart of their being all that they possess of uniqueness and creative power.

But this brings us to the last question of all. To create this unanimity we need the bond, as I said, the cement of a favouring influence. Where shall we look for it; how shall we conceive of this principle of togetherness, this soul of the earth? It is not a tête-à-tête or a corps-a-corps that we need; it is a heart-to-heart... It can only be done in the last resort through a meeting, centre to centre, of human units, such as can only be realized in a universal mutual love. Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, The Future of Man, 1959.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and philosophical books. According to Google: “His work as a paleontologist brought him into conflict with the Catholic Church. Teilhard asserted that the work of Christ is primarily to lead the material world to this cosmic redemption, while the conquest of evil is only secondary to his purpose. Evil is represented by Teilhard merely as growing pains within the cosmic process: the disorder that is implied by order in process of realization.”

Although he was defrocked for his going public with his beliefs and his writings were banned, his colleagues kept copies of his writings and shared them. He is today a powerful influence on science even today as a result. Imagine what he could have done to benefit us through the use of today’s self-publication and the internet to share across the professions and even more broadly, from science to the general public! There have been many others like him through history, men and women expressing their humanity in the best interests of tomorrow. With or without the internet their voices cannot be lost.

Clearly, working together – or not – has a long history. If we are to build a global community with the resources at hand, there is no choice. We are going to have to develop an awareness of ourselves and our humanity as a whole that is more inclusive and more unified. It starts with us personally and extends outward politically given resources that we share globally.

And so it is that COVID-19 has brought us full circle. It challenges us. It brings home this harsh reality. The breadth of the diversity of human thought and related productivity is still beyond belief (unimaginable); the depth of human thought and creativity is unfathomable. Else we would not be able to explore the outer edges of universe. However, we have yet to learn as much about the real depth of purpose and meaning of our existence from the inside out.

Regardless, De Chardin is just one of many individuals that I consider to be the “great minds” living amongst us now and through the centuries before who urge us to keep ourselves open to the two streams of learning and self-expression and in some way or another to use the double-sided brains that we are equipped with to integrate what we learn and balance ourselves worthy of the growing sense of humanity within us. They all have different ways of putting the words together to explain it but the reality of MINDFULNESS and SOULFULNESS is that it leads to a sense of Universal Love that lets us participate in the world around us and contribute to it in ways that are more loving and caring. Call it PEACEFULNESS. We need to continue to learn about it. We need to talk about it, write about it. We need Human Dialogue. We need the ongoing development of a fuller expression of our humanity within the context of its cosmic reality.

COVID-19 has brought with it an ecological message that Global Warming has been been delivering for years and that we as a humanity are only beginning to realize bit by bit: ALL Life Matters. It is a message that comes with the territory.OUR FUTURE IN THE NEW POST-PANDEMIC ERA

LIFE will be…

What we choose to make of it

Versus what it chooses to make of us

We know this now from our personal and political experience.

MINDFULNESS will be…

All the relevant Knowledge accumulated

And shared thus far as thoughts and ideas.

Science and our Education are telling us so.

SOULFULNESS will be…

All the significant Wisdom revealed

And conveyed thus far as feelings and intuitions.

Spirituality and our Religions guide us still.

PEACEFULNESS will be…

All the Knowledge and Wisdom

Combined as an ever-expanding ONE.

It is a new sense of SELF and OTHERS speaking out.

AGING will be…

Valued as a lifelong process resulting in experiences of PEACEFULNESS

With paths leading to an ever-increasing awareness of LOVE and

WONDERMENT!

Our choices post-pandemic, MINDFUL and SOULFUL, will make it so.

Don Ayre

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

For further information and updates see my website at www.donayre.ca

ARTICLE I: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF PEACEFULNESS in the NEW POST-PANDEMIC ERA

As we attempt to recover from the triple threat of COVID-19, Putin’s war and global warming, strange new words for this new learning begin to surface. It is as if we are developing a new language joining my generation with the next but also separating us. But then, what all three threats have in common is that they have challenged us in strange new ways -at all four levels of our existence: physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. It’s as though our humanity itself is changed.

Regardless, I want to underline my conviction that 1) locally through to globally, we need a stronger personal and political awareness of our “human connectivity” to one another (aka MINDFULNESS) and that 2) as well, one generation to the next, we need the stronger sense of “human continuity” that comes from working together as a humanity, one generation to the next. In fact, we need both - the MINDFULNESS of the sciences and the SOULFULNESS of the religions. And that BEYOND that even, we need to converge the two streams of learning into one convergent stream - PEACEFULNESS for want of a better word. In 2014, I wrote Toward a More Loving and Caring World. It was a summing up of my experiences in dialogue as a private social work practitioner. It began:

“Life: The Wonderful Story That Can Be Told and Made to Happen - It is a journey in self-awareness that is ever-expanding to include others of our generation and of generations gone before us. Gradually, our journeying becomes more purposeful – directed from within towards a common human destiny. It is then that our limited awareness of ourselves expands as the world we find ourselves in challenges us and we begin to realize that we have an enormous potential for contributing to a more loving and caring world. It is for us to choose.”

For years, I had been playing with this new form of professionalism into words through self-publication. Now I was feeling an urgency to think across professions and vested interests and even back through generations. The accumulated knowledge and wisdom of our humanity itself is open to us! It will take a strong inner compass for us to sort our way through truth from untruth.

A HISTORY SELF-PUBLICATION: My research for this new awareness reaches back through most of my career, especially since going into private practice in 1972. I have self-published nine books as a means of gathering my thoughts and sharing my thinking. I first began to self-publish when I was teaching family and child therapy at the University of Manitoba School of Social Work from 1966 to 1972. My first two self-published books were NEW HOPE FOR OLD WAYS and LOVE WITHIN LIMITS. They were a continuation of my work as a researcher at Family and Children’s Service of Pittsburgh. Although they were published with the help of University grants, I was not permitted to circulate them to students as they were not “scientific enough.” But now the possibility is not only to self-publish but to self-publish on the internet! A new freedom if properly used.

Back when I was active as a practitioner and researcher in my profession, the therapeutic relationship back then was clearly three dimensional - physical, intellectual and emotional - and to suggest that there was a fourth dimension - spiritual - was not “scientific.” Simple as that. As a result, I left the University to work as a consultant on team building for the Departments of Health and Social Services for the Province of Manitoba. SELF-PUBLICATION became my way of introducing this less scientific dimensions of child and family therapy to other professionals. The internet was yet to come.

When I left the University, I went into private practice as a community development consultant specializing in ecology. In 1980, I co-authored a paper with Jackson Beardy, an internationally known indigenous artist and seer. It was entitled HUMAN DIALOGUE AND THE EMERGENCE OF AN ECOLOGICAL CONSCIENCE and presented in 1980 at the FIRST CONFERENCE ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. I followed this up with nine self-published books based on my private practice. Always, I wrote from experience. Needless to say, I have gone through a lot of changes in terms of self-publication as the Internet developed. Still, I didn’t realize the enormous potential of the Internet as an enabler of self-publication until recently.

In 2014 when I summarized the career findings my years of private practice in a self-published book entitled TOWARD A MORE LOVING AND CARING WORLD, I was prompted by lingering concerns that I had as a former “peace-nick” about 9/11 and the state of our humanity as a world community. Because of my association with Jackson Beardy, long standing reliance on meditation and Eastern thought as well Western thought, I anticipated many of todays problems and I began to work more with communities - government agencies, business corporations and local aboriginal schools and youth.

In 1984, I was co-founder of the Business Learning Opportunities Program - an employment training program for aboriginal youth. It was one of the first educational programs in Canada to use computers for teaching! I served full-time as advisor and community development office to the program for 10 years. The Business Learning Opportunities Program was initiated on Lizard Point Reserve and later moved to Winnipeg where it had an enrollment of 60 students per year. It had a network of 35 workplace host in 1994 when it was terminated in 1994 due to lack of government funding. I retired.

A FUTURE OF INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS: Then the internet happened. The internet has an enormous potential for reaching out to other people doing the same work and for learning from them. We are only beginning to see how it is changing our world. One of it’s very positive potentials is in its enabling of self-publication. In 2018, I again self-published. The title was THE POWER OF LOVE’S CONNECTIVITY. It was based on insights that my wife, Jean, and I both gained in the process of our aging the experience. We thought of it as a process within a process. In particular, we found that a mantra that we had composed was important and we wanted to share it. We self-published a mantra that somehow gave us a more mutual focus. I have called it…

LOVE’s HAPPINESS

Look for beauty in all things

Expect love at all times

Share from the heart

Be grateful for life itself

And SMILE.

Later, this mantra was central to my writing of THE POWER OF LOVE’s CONNECTIVITY. In 2018, Jean chose to die with dignity after nine wonderful months at home in palliative care. Yes, they were more difficult days but Jean managed to meet with all of our family and close friends personally at home in our apartment. And we were able somehow to have precious time together as well. Afterward her celebration of life and with encouragement of my family, I wrote and self-published THE POWER OF LOVE’S CONNECTIVITY. She left many words of wisdom for us that the family wanted to share. She even wrote her own obituary to encourage friends to enjoy life as much as she had. What she did was new and revolutionary and she wanted others to know about what we had experienced.

BOOK LEARNING Versus NET LEARNING: They are two forms of communication, BOOK LEARNING and NET LEARNING. The one appeals more to the one side of our brains the other, left versus right. But in balance, which is which is not clear but awaits further study. Even so, the internet with its Facebook and other applications has pretty much taken over LOVE’S CONNECTIVITY whereas BOOK learning remains dominant regarding our GENERATIVITY. NET learning is more visual and immediate; BOOK learning is more by words and thoughts. But both are needed in balance to allow for the integration of new knowledge and its conversion into personal and political wisdom.

The beauty of self-publishing on the Internet is that it allows for both. We can reach out to one another for dialogue without being totally “scientific.” It allows us to express ourselves without going through a publisher and to say what we feel. Moreover, it is not limited to the physical book but is electronically communicated. It’s “out there” worldwide and timeless. It’s a dialogue within our humanity.

Similarly, Jean and I found that our mantra gave mutual direction of our lives. Jean acted out her life on the basis of a loving and caring “Connectivity.” Less talk, more action, especially more SMILING. Her SMILING was the key to her success and she encouraged everyone to enjoy life and SMILE with her. Jean was very much what we call person to person in her approach to life whereas I am less immediate in my loving and caring. Not so worldly. More in keeping with “the big picture” and the process of Generativity. Thankfully, people tend to balance one another in their relationships.

I related less person and person and more in terms of humanity as a whole. Still do. “Generativity.” we liked to call it in contrast to “connectivity.” More often, we called it “Continuity” referring to its contributing to the ongoing growth of humanity one generation to the next. Regardless, we found that our mantra enabled us to fly with two wings - the one of connectivity and the other of generativity - in ways that merged our life experiences into one sense of loving and caring. In short, Jean was much more down to earth and more real in her outlook on live whereas I was off in the cosmos somewhere. Still am. But we managed it.

LOVE’s CONNECTIVITY and its GENERATIVITY: My most recent self-publications are examples. I consider both of the two books featured in my website - TOWARD A MORE LOVING AND CARING WORLD and THE POWER OF LOVE’s CONNECIVITY - to be co-authored and to represent some resolution and balance and integration of new knowledge as a result. They will be available in the book section of amazon.ca and also on the website, that is, in both forms of today’s communication and learning. Since they are self-published, they are open to discussion and in a state of ongoing revision and changes as is this website. They are intended to contribute to the flow of learning in our lives to the point that we can envision more clearly what is BEYOND MINDFULNESS AND SOULFULNESS. The awareness papers included in the research section of this website are an extension of these earlier publications and represent what I can make out of MINDFULNESS and SOULFULNESS from the pile of puzzle pieces that I have gathered thus far. They are intended to reach out to each one of us as collective members of humanity and beyond to PEACEFULNESS. They are intended to deliver a message of hope.

I will be adding a third book also as an experiment in communication, BOOK learning versus NET learning. It will be a collection of the six 4D Awareness Papers now appearing in the RESEACH section of this website. The working title is AGING MINDFULLY, SOULFULLY and PEACEFULY in the NEW POST-PANDEMIC ERA: A Message of Hope. To read any of the 4D Awareness Papers now simply go to the hash marks at the top of this page and scroll down to click on RESEARCH. Click on MINDFULNESS TO SOULFULNESS and the 4D Awareness Papers will appear.

SELF-PUBLICATION may not be for everyone but has evolved through the years and has been made easier and more enjoyable as an elderly self-indulgence through the use of the Internet. It is a way of participating in and contributing to the vast energy field of universal love that is “out there.” I can say from personal experience that it is a little like performing on a trapeze without a net knowing that your thoughts and intuitions about life will be there forever. Even so, it’s not for everyone. Not yet. More important is that we take advantage of every opportunity open to us to tell our story. In the grand scheme of life, everyone’s story counts.

ARTICLE II: An INTRODUCTION to the WEBSITE

WORDS OF INSPIRATION: I was inspired in writing AGING MINDFULLY, SOULFULFULLY and PEACEFULLY in the NEW POST-PANDEMIC ERA by the BEAUTIFUL WORDS that I have read through the years and that I come across in the course of my research. I am particularly grateful for BEAUTIFUL WORDS such as Wendy Richardson has shared in her testimonial are words that prompt loving and caring thoughts and actions. I invite readers to use BEAUTIFUL WORDS and to share their thoughts. These words are passed from person to person or from one generation to the next. They are our reminders of our humanity and of hope. The internet offers us an excellent opportunity to share these words with one and other and to develop a basis for working together. Too often BEAUTIFUL WORDS are lost in the rush of life. Here’s another sample to keep in mind:

“It is through love and within love that we must look for the deepening of our deepest self, in the life-giving coming together of human kind. Love is the free and imaginative outpouring of the spirit over all unexplored paths. It links those who love in bonds that unite but do no confound, causes them to discover in their mutual contact an exaltation capable, incomparably more than any arrogance of solitude, of arousing in the heart of their being all that they possess of uniqueness and creative power. But this brings us to the last question of all. To create this unanimity we need the bond, as I said, the cement of a favoring influence. Where shall we look for it; how shall we conceive of this principle of togetherness, this soul of the earth?

It is not a tête-à-tête or a corps-a-corps that we need; it is a heart-to-heart... It can only be done in the last resort through a meeting, centre to centre, of human units, such as can only be realized in a universal mutual love.” Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, The Future of Man, 1959.

De Chardin went on to say that to the extent that we are the creators of the world around us, a more loving and caring world will happen with the participation of more loving and caring people. It’s up to us as individuals. The bad news is that it won’t happen easily. But the good news is for us as individuals is that we can begin when we feel like it. De Chardin was a Catholic priest. He wrote these words nearly 60 years ago. but most of his writings were banned from publication. He was himself was banned from the church,

Fortunately, much of what he wrote was copied and circulated amongst many of the scientists of the day and so his words still have a strong influence amongst scientists today - although perhaps not strongly enough. While he is recognized by scientists as a one of the founders of the internet, his influence was more from a conceptual point of view and not so much practically. Even so, De Chardin suggested that we could start “through love and within love.” Why not? It seems that as never before, today’s world needs what de Chardin has called “a principle of togetherness.” At a personal level, it’s up to us to turn his words into actions little by little, through small acts of kindness.

At a political level, for example, we might share rather than waste COVID-19 vaccines deciding who should have them. Given a background of Chardin’s words, most of today’s scientists would agree. I know that I’d vote for that. Chardin’s “principle of togetherness” is better known today as “universal love.” It is regarded as an essential element if we are to connect lovingly and caringly and work together personally and politically as a global community.

NOW IS NOW. Fast forward to today. There are many other “great minds” both before and after De Chardin who have contributed to this kind of humanitarian thinking and to a stronger sense of global community. I will be featuring them on this website and would welcome any suggestions.

To keep up to date with the learning demands of today’s fast-paced and erratic lifestyle, I am attempting to to develop a website that I am constantly updating as a continuation of my research as a family and child therapist and community consultant. Meanwhile, the knowledge base of my profession has grown and expanded immensely. Moreover, all of us as professionals in our own right now have the ability now to exchange information from one field of learning to another and to make what we know generally available through an internet that joins us all as one.

In spite of all of these advantages, COVID-19 has found us out. We are not yet able to act rationally and sensibly as a collective community that is world-wide in its outreach and that reflects a growing sense of our common human destiny one generation to the next. We are not all coming from the base of UNIVERSAL LOVE that is beyond MINDFULNESS and SOUFULNESS. Instead of two streams of learning separate and apart from one another, there needs to be two streams of learning - physical/intellectual and emotional/spiritual - integrated and balanced as one stream, PEACEFULNESS.

Until we recognized these four steams of learning as one, COVID-19 won’t be over when it’s over. The vaccine is on its way but COVID-19 has found us out as have pandemics before it. The global community that we thought we were building for one another, is wanting. It is not inclusive of our humanity as a whole. Worse, it is not ecologically sound. So the cry politically is for “working together.” Meanwhile, COVID-19 will continue to put pressure on us in all four dimensions of our lives - physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual. The simple truth of it is, we are not fully aware of life’s four dimensions. We don’t share a balanced outlook. Granted, it will take a while but it’s entirely possible.

ONGOING REVISIONS: I have been trying to revise my website to reflect this need to keep pace four dimensionally - physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually - at the level of our humanity as a whole. In fact, these four levels of intelligence have to be integrated and balanced as one for any society to advance not just socioeconomically but also psychosocially. It takes many minds the likes of de Chardin. It takes minds like ours. Amazingly, we can participate in and contribute to civilization’s slow growth and development at this level to achieve not only individual happiness but also social progress. It depends on our awareness.

And so Aging isn’t just a time when we are getting older. Aging is a time when the left hemisphere of our brains is less useful to us and the right hemisphere of our brains is more active. It is also a time when our senses expanded from five to eight and our senses of OTHER and of “Something Bigger” become more dominant. It goes on within each one of us as we continue to grow and develop personally and as we find new expressions for ourselves politically.

AGING TODAY: As the momentum of the aging process is freed up from the work worries of middle-age, we feel it more. In fact, this goes on to all people of all ages but for those of us who going through the aging process, it is more uppermost. Our participation in and contribution to the world we live in is different at different times in our lives and within this context, aging is a lifelong process of fulfillment not only of ourselves individually but of civilization as a whole. It is a time when knowledge is converted into wisdom.

I can only write from my personal and political experience, of course. And so I am aware as I am writing today from the perspective of an aging person who is more advanced. I am 86 at the time of this writing. As a result, my greater concern throughout as we move into the post-pandemic is for those of us who are growing older as they age and for the role of we will play in the rebuilding of our social and economic structures.

All things considered, I am devoting this website to the sharing of BEAUTIFUL WORDS. We are entering a new era of social and economic development that needs only the universal love that we can generate to enable both hemispheres of brains - left and right - towards the single goal of humanity. Thus MINDFULNESS plus SOULFULNESS equals PEACEFULNESS.

Why not? Our brains are in need a more positive diet of information and there’s room for growth and development. I can only conclude with the poem that I started with. Since I wrote it, the post-pandemic era started out with COVID has expanded into a triple threat environment adding the horrors of Russia’s brutal invasion on the Ukraine and the multitude of environmental problems that come with global warming. Our future as a humanity depends on our choices and on our MINDFULNESS and SOULFULNESS combined as ONE.

OUR FUTURE IN THE NEW POST-PANDEMIC ERA