What are You doing for others?
April 2025
Are you part of the 76 million people born 1946-1964 considered the largest and oldest generation in the world?
Paul Simon and I are Boomers. 'Born at the right time,' Paul Simon once said. We were the love, peace, and happiness gang. We felt sure that all our love for being alive would heal the world.
Here is what we were facing:
- 1970 Kent State shootings
- 1970 Paul McCartney departed from Beatles—end of legendary band
- 1972 Watergate Scandal
- 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre
- 1973 16 years of conflict in Vietnam
- 1999 The world prepares for the Y2K bug amid fears of a digital collapse
- 2001 9-11 attacks lead to the War on Terror
- 2008 The global financial crisis causes economic downturns worldwide
- 2019 Covid 19 pandemic
- 2021 The US withdraws from Afghanistan after 20 years
- 2023-24 Ongoing conflicts, technological advancements in AI, and climate-related challenges
Disturbing? YES!
Devastating? YES!
Disappointing? YES!
So, here I am, almost 79 years, looking at our world. I never envisioned a world dealing with so many of the same issues for so long. How can that be true? Why do we continue to endure when we know we could do better?
Lately, I've been overwhelmed and depressed regarding our daily global news. My whole life is dedicated 'to inspire others to take action.' This is what underlies ever act of service that I can do in one lifetime. So I want to inspire you while you read this newsletter. So many of you I've known for so long. You are good people. Maybe together we can move the service needle forward, YES???
Any act of kindness will help. I'm sure you know Gayle Shanks, co-owner of the independent bookstore Changing Hands. Remember when Cookies from Home was next door to their store on Mill Avenue, the perfect stop along the way, right? Often people would stop in to grab a small bag of warm chocolate chip cookies then head over to Changing Hands and find the perfect nook for the perfect read on a Sunday afternoon. I've also written a couple of books that I was excited to share with our customers. Usually Gayle would introduce me (always a thrill to me!) while I tried to memorize and memorialze this moment. In Gayle's March newsletter she inspired me to write to you all today. She included splendid examples and links to places, organizations that are committed to peace, sustainability, and protection for the vulnerable. Check it out to see what calls your time and attention.
As Martin Luther King says, "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." What are you doing for others: elders, animals, children? One afternoon of your time can mean so much.
A few weeks ago we had days of rain and biting cold, so unusual for us here in Arizona. I loved it! Barry and I had a staycation Film Festival and discovered an older series worth mentioning here: Miss Friman's War. The series is set in 1905 in Stockholm. Miss Dagmar Friman, a headstrong suffragette, returns to Sweden, and inspired by the poor food quality and injustices she witnesses, she decides to open 'Swedish Homes' for women, a women-run co-op grocery store for women, fighting for both good food and equal rights. Dagmar used the co-op as a platform women's issues.
Men had their unions and because it was wartime, women had to make money. Laws were compromised, young children had to work, competition was tougher than ever. Men were threatened by women's innovation and success. Even today this challenge continues: women earn 83cents for every $1.00 earned by men.
I immediately flashed back to the 1960's, living in Athens, Georgia. We opened our first cookie store there and I hosted many For Women Only parties to get the ERA passed. Our Victorian home could hold so many women, women who were local teachers, University women, Westinghouse leaders…what fun! This was one way I could connect with community for a cause that was important to me.
Whatever you can do, DO IT!!! As The Elders today, we know the past and we can see the future while being very present. The older we are, the closer we are to the lessons of the past and recognize the more we need to be the stewards for the future. I don't think about me so much. I've had my turn. I think more about the world I'm leaving for my children and grandchildren. This is not the world I imagined for them. We're smarter than that! We are observers of what's needed at this very moment: depth or lightness. We know that laughter, at the right time, is like a beacon of light in a dark time. As Anne Lamott says 'Laughter is carbonated spirit,' a much needed quality in these times, mixed with some obvious, serious realism.
We know emotions are contagious…whether it be anxiety or regret. We are the models for not letting the small stuff annoy us, but speaking up when the big stuff is at our doorstop.
Please share your acts of kindness with me. With your permission, I promise to share them with others.
Talk to me. Susan Brooks (602) 228-5279
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Featured Modern Elders*
Marcia Fine & Salvador Barba
Both in their 70's
Marcia and I have been BFF's for over 50 years. We taught high school English together. We raised our children together. Marcia moved to Tempe, Arizona, I soon followed. The idea of opening a cookie store on Mill Avenue where Clown Alley used to be was Marcia's idea, but Barry and I actually made it happen.
When Marcia's husband, Skip, passed during Covid, and I witnessed her grief and the onset of widowhood for the next three years: living alone, eating alone, attending events alone. An afternoon Starbucks became her regular hangout. I'd join her often, watching the parade of people walk by. My Grandmother's wisdom reminded me to warn her to always wear a pretty shade of lipstick wherever you go because "you never know who you might meet that day." Sure enough, when Salvador was waiting for his turn at the Barber Shop next door, he wandered over to Starbucks and 'saw this attractive lady' (see? My Grandmother was right!) sitting outside sipping a hot chai. The next 20 minutes flew by and so did the stimulating conversation that was rather unique about epigenetics. He gave his phone number to her and asked Marcia to contact him for lunch. Interesting approach, I thought, when she shared this with me later.
Salvador was right about Marcia: she is attractive, and very independent. At 6'4", a full head of white hair, and a slender athletic frame, many women approach him first. He wasn't into that, he says. 'I'd respond that I was a construction worker and I still live with my mother.' 'That usually did it,' he said, baring his white and full smile.
It's been over a year now and they both love their relationship. Salvador says "we have had to change our ways to accommodate each other. Neither one of us likes drama, so no arguments. Decisions are easy. We see each other 2x a week, we each still live in our own homes, we like having our own space." It was divine intervention that we were both single and available for a relationship!
Marcia confesses that she had been manifesting a companion for months before she met Salvador. She enjoys concerts, plays, dinner. She wanted someone who was good to talk to. She was aware and was often tempted to stay home. Inertia can be a big challenge, and because she reads a lot, staying home could be easy. "I knew I needed to go out and be seen." Salvadore says, "It's pure pleasure to have fun with Marcia. I love going out to discover new places with her." And then, Marcia pipes in, "I never expected to fall in love again at this age and it is so nice to have someone to share my life with and have somebody who really cares."
Because later love can get complicated and kids can have a greater presence with opinions about these relationships, Salvador set some important boundaries over the years with his then teenage children about decisions they had to make as they were growing up: Salvador said "know I will not be your financial support or your baby sitter if you make the wrong decisions." Marcia's adult children are so happy to see them together. "They are so good for each other."
"Now is all that matters," Marcia says often.
If retirement or the next chapter is calling your name, if I can help you realize your vision in business and lifestyle, email me. Let's make it happen now! Susan@SusanLBrooks.com.
*Chip Conley, best-selling author and speaker, hospitality entrepreneur and leading thought leader, created The Modern Elder Academy's mission "to inspire the ability to reframe a lifetime of experience and recognize one's mastery, relevance, and value in the modern workplace." The Modern Elder* is Conley's term and effort that "liberates and inspires us to embrace wisdom as a path of growing whole, not old...The Modern Elder marries wisdom and curiosity."
Every month this newsletter will Feature the stories and wisdom of Modern Elders.
Share your Modern Elders with us...maybe it's you!! Please send in your Modern Elder Story along with a one-line Wisdom statement plus photo to be featured. CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT.
Today, I am 78 years old, and proud of it! Paul Simon, who is now in his 80's said it best years ago: us boomers were BORN AT THE RIGHT TIME!
Yes, I was born at the right time! I'm still a hippie from the 60's, I marched for civil rights for all humans, equal rights for women, waving my bra with the best. I am proud to be living and growing in a robust marriage of 57 years. I survived motherhood, and so did my now-adult children. I was an award-winning woman business owner when there were but a few of us. I've learned a whole bunch of lessons, and more importantly, I've earned my fair share of Wisdom, too. I am Pro-Age!
According to Chip Conley, one of today's leading thought leaders: "Experience is making a comeback. Wisdom never grows old." Chip created the hallmarks of the Modern Elder*: "learning to marry wisdom and experience with curiosity, cultivating a beginner's mind so that learning never ends, exemplifying a willingness to evolve both as a student and sage." Research shows that shifting our mindset about Aging can add 7.4 happy years to a person's life.
Proud to say I am a graduate of the Modern Elder Academy as well as an active participant in Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience, and Spirit programs. As one of the creators and hosts of the Thrive@55 event, we celebrated our female community leaders who were 55+.
As long as I'm able to see the sunrise every morning and keep a curious mind, there's more living to do, so much more to learn, and so many new ways to serve. Trailblazer that I am, and always will be, I recognize my next mission: by example and demonstration I am committed to Changing the Face of Aging: One Modern Elder* at a time!
I welcome both local and national speaking engagements as well as one-on-one coaching opportunities to delve more deeply into navigating life transitions. Email me Here.
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