The Heard Community

Herd immunity is the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, especially through vaccination. There was a lot of press, talk, speculation about it early on in the coronavirus pandemic. many countries used this concept to shape their response, with varying degrees of success.

Elders have the opportunity to become the heard community. We, as a population, were affected most by the virus, especially in the early onset. People over 70 were the first to die from this dreadful disease. And so we were also the most “isolated”.

Now, as nations consider easing citizens back to work and out of their homes, we may yet be the most limited. How can we use this time to find our voice as a group? How can we continue to be valued even as work begins and the “new normal” takes shape? What is the shape of normal that includes our needs and respects our wisdom?

We have role models and mentors to guide us. Maggie Kuhn (1905-1995), who in 1970 founded the Gray Panthers, is certainly a guiding light. She and some friends formed the organisation when she was fired from her beloved job at the then-mandatory retirement age of 65. Though the group recognised the interrelation of all issues of injustice, the focus was on fighting ageism and on nursing home reform, claiming that “old people and women constitute America’s biggest untapped and undervalued human energy source.”

Reb Zalman Schacheter-Shalomi was, and still is, the guiding light for our spiritual lives as elders. His voice was heard through his books, video recordings, workshops and his relationships with other spiritual leaders of his time. He stepped into a world where elders were sidelined and regarded as dispensable and demanded that we pay attention to the wisdom of experience, do the inner work, listen deeply and communicate authentically

The world’s oldest COVID-19 survivor, Señora Maria Banyas from north-east Spain is quoted in the May 16, 2020 issue of the Guardian saying, “It will have to be done all over again.…believe me a new order is needed.” Having lived through the Spanish flu epidemic, two world wars and the Spanish civil war, she goes on to say, “The pandemic goes to show that older people are the forgotten ones in our society.”

Translated by her daughter, Rosa Moret, she outlined her vision of the future.

“A change in values, one that prioritises education, health and research. And fewer weapons and far less spending on so many politicians.”

She has found her voice after witnessing the pandemic sweeping through the care home in which she lives. Her outrage turned into a vision for a different world, not only for elders, but for all.

She is the heard community…and so are we.

Felice Rhiannon is a Certified Sage-ing Leader and a Onespirit Minister and spiritual counselor in Great Britain.  She can be reached at elderspiritblog.wordpress.com.