We are getting old, our body first and then, often much later our mind. Nothing wrong with it as  it is a natural and necessary process of substitution, the old goes to make room for the new. In fact, once we accept the inevitability of this process, we find new ways to use our age as a powerful tool to contribute in our clubs and in the community. As senior Rotarians, we have seen it all, we have seen what works and what doesn’t, and why.Far from telling others how to run their lives, we can share how we ran ours, the challenges we met with and how we overcame them. We are, obviously, all different because of different circumstances, place of birth, parents, friends, etc. yet we all in our own way went through emotions like love, anger, desertion or empathy. Most importantly we learned to deal with these emotions and we understood how they impacted and affected our decisions. |
There are many younger people, in the club and in society that are struggling with these emotions and could take wrong decisions and condemn themselves to endure the consequences. We have experienced careers’ changes, relationship, kid’s upbringing, we had moments of anxiety, fear and we overcame them in our own way, we learnt from our mistakes. We now are poised, cool, experienced, and perhaps wise. We shall make ourselves available to share our perspective in life, to mentor when requested and in our “me talks” in clubs remind that as Rotarians we subscribe to help, to assist, to make a difference. In an age where many things are “virtual”, and online we shall re-affirm the importance of fellowship, being together in person, listening intently and with compassion. We are social beings, we live in communities and we have learnt historically that we are stronger and able to overcome difficulties when we keep together, united. We all can contribute with different talents, we are of different gender, age and faith but we have a common destiny. In Singapore we may not have abject poverty, we do not lack of sanitation, we are not affected by infectious diseases but we have an increasing number of people experiencing depression, solitude, and neglect. In cases like these our vocation might not be of help but our attitude, our character, and our experience if we are prepared to share it, will. Photo by David McIntyre |