A Report From "Creative Wisdom: Composing a Creative Life" Workshop

[9 November 2006 - Hartford Public Library – Hartford, Connecticut – Facilitators: Steven Dahlberg, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination; and Louise Loomis, New England Cognitive Center]

Getting Primed for Learning …

“There will be miracles / After the last war is won / Science and poetry rule / in the new world to come / Prophets and angels / Gave us the power to see / What an amazing future there will be … / Time is relentless / And as the past disappears / We’re on the verge of all things new / We are two thousand years.” – Billy Joel

“In the middle of the night / I go walking in my sleep / Through the desert of truth / To the river so deep / We all end in the ocean / We all start in the streams / We’re all carried along / By the river of dreams / In the middle of the night.” – Billy Joel

Applying Boomers’ (and Others') Know-How and Can-Do to Meet Society’s Greatest Needs

• How might we “tap the passion and experience of people over 50 to improve society”?
• How might we “take on local, national or international challenges by engaging this vast and vibrant [group] for good”?
  – MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures
  

Summary of Concern Search and Problem Finding
Average age of participants: 56 (ranging from 26 to 78)

* ENVIRONMENT

• Environment (x 3)
• Save our relationship with the Earth
• Caring for our environment
• Save the environment
• An awareness of concern about our natural environment
• Global warming (x 3)

HEALTH

• Disease
• How is this nation going to solve the weight problems of adults and kids?
• Health
• My health
• Medical cures
• Insomnia

WAR AND PEACE

• Ethnic conflict
• War (x 4)
• A more carefully designed and conducted Iraq war effort
• Bringing peace to those so discontent
• Strategizing to gracefully or appropriately exit the Iraq war

DEMOCRACY

• Democracy
• Direction of Democratic Congress
• Dishonesty and corruption

RETIREMENT AND FINANCIAL SECURITY

• Social Security benefits – will there be any?
• Employment
• Finances
• $ – how to spend and save
• Job security, jobs downsizing before retirement age – having to retire early without a back-up job

* PERSONAL FULFILLMENT (AND RETIREMENT)

• Mental alertness
• Setting, working toward, and reaching personal goals
• Relocation?
• Live in the present
• Patience
• Thinking about going back to school
• Making an impact in my sphere
• Making the transition into retirement and finding a meaningful opportunity
• Somewhat weak self-image

* CHILDREN, THEIR FUTURES AND EDUCATION

• Public education
• Save the future for our descendents
• Prayer should be put back in schools
• My children’s and grandchildren’s futures
• Personal and professional success of our kids

SOCIETAL PROBLEMS AND INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIORS

• Pace of change and violent resistance to modernity
• Aging (X 3)
• Help save the helpless
• Age lifestyle society
• National debt
• Society’s materialism
• Road rage
• Truth
• Poverty
• Selfishness
• Home protection
• Greed

* PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

• Lack of respect
• Harmony among one another
• Keeping long-term friendships alive

CREATIVITY

• Art
• Would like to retire in a creative capacity
  

* = top concerns selected by participants

Find out more information about the "Creative Wisdom" programs.