Everybody can do something!
A new group under Bettina Network Hedge Schools Foundation, inc.
The brain child of Marceline, of course. She does things. Sometimes we wish she would retire, but that won’t happen so here we go – again.
She says “I am so tired of being old. It shows me too much about what people are really like. When you grow old in this society the assumption is you can do nothing, know nothing, want nothing, etc. and everyone tries to help you walk when, actually, you exercise and ride a stationary bike everyday. That help comes if you falter in your walk or trip over something – the assumption is that you need to stop walking. There are other assumptions made if that happens and you have no gray hair or wrinkles.
What is the problem? The very segregated society in which we live is the problem. The denial of our common and equal humanity is the problem. We continue that kind of society and follow the leaders who re-enforce that kind of separatism because it makes us feel “better than.” And that is a feeling we refuse to abandon.
Everybody can do something.
I remember Spencer Rice – the rector of Trinity Church Copley Square in the 1980’s who hired retired Episcopal priests to help with the services on Sunday mornings. What did they do? He had six each Sunday. They served communion. No matter your mental or physical condition, as a priest you can assist with the service by serving communion.
I remember they processed behind the choir, as normal. Some could not walk without a cane or more; some had trouble communicating because their minds were going or gone, some were just old and retired and no one else would hire them because they should stay retired – as some of us promote that to happen in this unequal and oppressive society trying to portray some of us as superior to others both mentally, physically and emotionally..
Sometimes it was funny seeing these elderly priests hobble into church in the procession and leave at the end of the service in the recession out of the sanctuary along with the other Assistant Priests.
That stuck in my mind because today I have a retired Episcopal priest husband who – outside of Bettina Network, inc. and its subsidiaries,- with his Harvard University doctorate and so much more – is considered someone who can’t function and should stay retired. It is amazing what he can do, but is treated in such a way that he can do nothing.
I do a lot – because our vocational choices were different. I struggled for decades trying to succeed in the traditional ways and as a black woman had many “vocations”. In each, I had to fight the system that did not want a black female to do anything except clean other peoples houses and/or other such work.
That is the society in which we live. I tried many things, but in the end my job as a stock broker (first African American registered broker in the country) and then gave it up because the racism and sexism were extreme. I did not lose interest in the market, however, I just didn’t have time to focus on things like day trading.
Today I focus on that because I can. I can because it is too difficult to push my way into other things and my family background and most of my many vocations have been entrepreneurial. I can because no one hires or fires me and I am on my own doing this in my own space. The only limitation is if I lose all of our money and then I have to find something else to do.
So every morning about 3-4am I get up (which is what my age dictates I do); turn on the television and hit the papers and other financial materials getting ready to do my thing for the day.
Needless to say that is my only choice in finance, the only thing I can do in that area, because no one would hire an 87 year old woman to do anything. What is expected of me is to retire quietly; do nothing; gradually physically, mentally and emotionally deteriorate and then die – preferably quietly.
Something is wrong with that picture. I can function and Robert can function, until we die, doing something. Maybe my thoughts about this come from my grandmother who was an entrepreneur. She designed and made clothes, gowns, all kinds of things. She was in the process of designing and sewing a gown for a Carnival Queen in New Orleans the day she died. She was well into her 80’s. Her creations only got better with age and she hired people to do what she could no longer do in that design process. The people she hired could not get jobs in other places so that worked out for many.
WHAT ABOUT YOU? Are you going to join me – doing something or working with other really old people to do something? Everybody can do something and it is time we started a society in which everyone has worth and can contribute – what they want to contribute; what their talents say they can contribute; what their abilities allow them to contribute and so much more. That is what we are adding to Bettina Network Hedge School Foundation, inc.
You don’t have to be perfect, wealthy, in good health, or even sane (whatever that means). You can do something. It is one way to help create a society of equals instead of this society in which we live of the “better than” and all the rest of us. You don’t have to be perfect you just have to be alive to do something – make some contribution to this world on a constant ongoing basis. If what you choose to do doesn’t work for you and the society, try something else, but constantly use your life to do something.
I had no idea how horribly the elderly are treated in this society. You used to be sent to the “Old Folks Homes”. Today you are sent to “Assisted Living”, “Retirement Communities”, “Nursing Homes” where you are separated from the rest of the world so they don’t have to come to grips with the fact that they too will age soon.
Junk those concepts and get out and do something. Anything – one thing turns into something else until you find something you can do. When your physical or mental ability changes then you change what you do.
God forgive us for turning your creation into this place of “I am better than you so I will provide lesser places for you to be until you die.” We will try to change that into “my contributions in this life are important and I will continue to make some kind of contribution until I die.” Others will just have to accommodate and move ahead with me and my infirmities until they have learned magnificent lessons in the process about accepting and working with their and my humanity and abilities.“
