As I get older, I have come to see that, although I feel pretty ageless and often believe that age is just a number, the fact is that age does indeed matter in certain things. If we seize the opportunity, we keep learning, and expanding, the longer we’re on the planet. So, there is something to be said for being older, and the value of elder wisdom and all of that. Many of us realize that what we most have to give to younger people is our wisdom/experience/ perspective. It’s a major impetus and foundation for launching both UnLabelMe and All Over the Place as storytelling brands/platforms that illuminate the importance of perspective. 

It feels essential for people of all ages to be able to share – and to LISTEN TO – wisdom, experience and perspective. My experience connecting with people of all ages and backgrounds has shown me how too often “Olders” don’t really hear or listen to Youngers, diminishing their voices and POV simply because they haven’t lived on the planet as long. We have so much to gain from listening to Youngers about what’s it like to be here now, at their ages, at a time when the challenges to navigate through societal challenges may be greater than ever. 

Many older people feel overwhelmed by the speed at which the notion of “normal” no longer exists, how the traditional social/economic/political paradigms are imploding before their eyes, incredulous that their grandson’s desired pronoun is “she” or “they,” and they are holding on – literally – for dear life. They are often thinking solely about themselves, voting for candidates who might aid their pocketbook yet with little disregard for a relationship with Mother Nature and the future that they’re leaving for those grandkids. And, youth is too often demeaning elders, not respecting the value of experience, heightening the explosion of cancel culture and fostering additional polarization…as if there’s not enough with age having to be added into the mix.

We all have to be wondering at some point if anyone is really LISTENING. When there’s not a safe space, an open forum, for people to talk about this stuff and open their minds and hearts, what arises is assumption, assumption, assumption leading to judgment, judgment, judgment, right? Which creates deep separation within, and from our fellow humans. 

In some ways, I envisioned UnLabelMe as an assault on assumption and judgment because we all do it. It’s not about I’m better than you because I don’t do it. Fuck yeah, we all do it. As humans we seem to be bred to do it. My point is that IF we take that pause, if we allow that crack in our armor that lets the light in before we jump to conclusions, small shifts can have huge effects. Instead of making an assumption, maybe just ask a question, so many assumptions would be imploded if people just ask questions. 

The first time somebody told me that “assuming is the lowest form of communication,” it hit me like a ton of bricks. Instead of assuming why someone does or says what they do, how about asking, how about curiosity? Coming from a place of “I don’t understand why you don’t agree with (think like) me” can suddenly seem absurd, when we open up to a new approach. What makes me think that my place on a spectrum, on a continuum, of possibilities, is right (and yours, wrong)? You’re you and I’m me, with different circumstances, lenses and perspectives. Maybe we agree, and maybe we don’t. Or maybe we agree on that, but not on other things. Life is, I have come to more often than not, a subjective, not objective, experience.  

In this era of cancel culture and ever-deepening separation and polarization, when it comes to intergenerational relations, there’s so much that needs to be illuminated, to be discussed, in safe environments. I am committed to create safe spaces, whether online or in “real life.” Where people can communicate from their hearts, what’s going on for them. Older people just want to give their wisdom away. Very often, we want to give it to our kids and they don’t want to listen to it from us. That’s been going on forever, and it’s understandable why that happens. It doesn’t mean that they don’t want to hear and receive it, it just means, often, “not from you, Mom and Dad.” However, we can give it freely, to other people’s kids, to whomever wants to receive it, and our kids can provide awesome perspective to other people’s parents, in the hope that we can all listen better in a nonjudgmental, non-assumptive way.

I’ve been thinking about this more than ever how important it is to put younger people and older people together to open minds and hearts. When we do that, we’re connecting people of all ages, all races, all genders, all sexual identities, all ethnicities. We are all in this together.  We – Youngers and Olders – need each other, and truly can tap into  the best of what we all bring to the table. What we’re crafting is a place for shared, and sharing, wisdom and perspective. A Repository of Wisdom and Perspective. Come and take it if you want. No obligation, no agenda other than Lowering the Temperature and Raising the Vibration.