Straight talk, valuable life strategies, practical tools and inspiring messages for the 150 million Americans who will soon be 50 years old and older. These are just some of the things George and Sedena Cappannelli deliver in their eminently accessible "DO NOT GO QUIETLY: A guide to living consciously and aging wisely for people who weren't born yesterday."
DO NOT GO QUIETLY is loaded with valuable perspectives oh how to live more consciously and age wisely and provides a host of practical and relevant recommendations on specific choices we can make to lead more satisfying and successful lives. This is a call to action for those who the world calls older GenXers, Boomers and Elders that our work is not done. We have the wisdom, experience, resources and necessity to take an active role in doing it so we will leave behind a legacy of greater hope and consciousness for those who come after.
Few dispute that these are challenging times.
In these awkward times, we recognize the crisis our world faces---as 50% of our population moves toward a time when they will be 50 or older for the first time in history. These challenges are being exacerbated by a confluence of political discord and by the growing ease with which some people with power and influence are willing to sacrifice truth in the interest of private political agendas and personal financial gain.
At the same time, a remarkable and unstoppable bubbling up seems to be happening. This bubbling up is bringing with it unprecedented opportunities and extraordinary possibilities for people of all ages. The over-50 crowd have at our disposal greater resources, more information and technological knowhow, better health options and more leisure time than the generations before us. Some of us also have decades of direct experience in creating substantive social and political change.
For us "doing something" involves first putting our own houses in order. It also involves remembering to exercise the enormous power that those of us in the second half of life have; financial and electoral voting power to influence change.
We were born before the dawn of the digital age and therefore know that many of the overamped, excessively medicated, digitally preoccupied, entertainment addicted, economically driven and relatively unconscious practices that constitute life in the modern world are not our only choices. Many of us remember a time when we utilized our time and invested our energies differently.
Our world has changed and we cannot simply snap our fingers and reverse time. Those of us who still remember what this other world looked like have the opportunity to ensure that the "brave new world" we are entering will still offer genuine opportunity, as well as sufficient care and compassion, for all members of our human family. We remain hopeful that as a gloriously complex, courageous and talented species, we can still wake up in time to smell the roses.
The intention to live with a greater moment-by-moment awareness will assist you to drink more fully from each experience and every interaction. The gift of living and of learning in each moment will allow you to move beyond the discomfort of a divided consciousness and allow you to live a life that is much freer of worry, doubt, and concern. So take a moment and imagine what this next stage of your life can truly be like.