I am reading Robert Bellah’s latest book, “Religion in Human Evolution.” I suppose it isn’t for everyone, but it certainly is for me.

I got to know Bob Bellah in Berkeley, Calif., when I was a minister at the First Congregational Church near the university. It was his book, “Habits of the Heart,” that spoke deeply to me then. He was a professor of sociology at Cal, so I called him up and we had lunch together a few times. That was around 1990. Not too long after that, I came to Maine and we lost touch.

Nancy saw his new book at the Yarmouth Library and brought it home for me. I read the introduction and ordered a copy for myself. I like to write in pencil in books I love.

I emailed Bob while I was waiting for his new book to arrive. He started this book after he retired from Cal. It took him eleven years to write during which time his beloved wife of 61 years, Melanie, died. He wrote that her death was hard for him, but working with his publisher to finish the book was part of what kept him going.

Why am I telling you this story? It is because the wisdom, intellect and grace of the author shines through this important intellectual-spiritual achievement. It is because a book like this takes a lifetime of study and living and loving to come to fruition. And it is because I too am nearing the end of my life. and I recognize and am continued on my journey of mind and soul by the truth of his words, his vision, his heartfelt understanding.

It takes a lifetime to gain wisdom. Whatever wisdom I have gained to this point of living my allotted days has a lot to do with many things. It has to do with the stumbles and jumps, the foolishness and the insights, the prideful times and the falls that followed. It has to do with being a child of my parents and grandchild of my grandparents, husband to my wife, father of our children, grandparents of our grandchildren. It has to do with my search for God and my realization that humans throughout the world and throughout time have their stories and their families and their gods which don’t separate us but unite us.

I’m telling you this story for another reason, to call attention to and celebrate the wisdom of elders among us. Bob Bellah has written this fine book to share his wisdom. I suspect that due to the sum of his vivid acquaintance with his own mortality, meaning discovered over his lifetime and an inner call to stewardship of this gift of wisdom, he wanted/needed to write this book.

Do all of us who are now elders similarly feel the need to share what wisdom and truth we have found along the days of life’s journey? My life has given me a precious gift — forgive me whatever arrogance is in this opinion — that is a modicum of understanding of the human condition and the way love, life and spirit work through us and in us as we struggle and dance our way through the luminous darkness that is being alive. Perhaps, just as previous stages in human development have their tasks — babies finding physical and emotional nourishment, adolescents finding their identities and independence, young adults finding intimacy and direction, the middle aged making their contributions to what developmental psychologists called generativity — so elders, for their own and their culture’s sake, need to share the stories that contain their wisdom.

Could it be that a partial answer to what the western world needs, for its own good and even preservation, is to hear the stories of its elders? I think so.

So, where does it start for you? How about with you taking time to be with and learn from the stories of an elder in your life and or community? I wager that both of you will come away from that time together understanding better what it means to be blessed.

Contact Bill Gregory, an author and retired minister, at:

gregor1@maine.rr.com

 

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