There are special human qualities and abilities that can only come to full blossom with age – for example, mature wisdom, experienced leadership, the ability to give back to society the lessons and resources that have been harvested over a lifetime. The elderly should be seen as a living bridge between yesterday, today and tomorrow. They are the prism through which others can see the rainbow of potential for the future.

Another way of expressing this thought is to acknowledge that elders are members of humanity’s front line who devote the afternoon of life to developing their full human potential. Aging is a developmental process, an ever-widening expansion of consciousness and a growing sense of unity with life. The elderly have the opportunity to raise the expectations of what it means to be human and what this earth means to us.

Maggie Kuhn states it more clearly. “Older people are not just card-carrying members of Leisure World and midafternoon nap-takers. We are tribal elders, with an ongoing responsibility for safeguarding (man’s) survival and protecting the health of the planet. To do this, we must become society’s futurists, testing out new instruments, technologies, ideas, and styles of living. We have the freedom to do so, and we have nothing to lose.”