Saving Wisdom's Legacy

When most people hear the word legacy, they think of material possessions.  For some, that may be an estate of great wealth or a family business. For others, their entire material legacy will consist of a cardboard box filled with a few personal items and fading photos.
 

But rich or poor, we each have another legacy we carry deep within our hearts and minds. It’s a priceless and irreplaceable legacy, a legacy of childhood memories, family stories, and lessons learned along our life’s path.  Many of us have memories of time spent with a father, mother, or grandparent. Times when they shared their stories and family histories while fishing, playing chess, or sitting around the kitchen table.  Stories of adventure, bravery, love, and sacrifice. Many of these stories carry within them great wisdom for the issues we and our children will face today and in the coming years.  
 

Currently, there are approximately 49,600,000 people 65 years of age or older in the US. Each day, about 4,900 of them die, nearly 2,000,000 per year.  And when they do, along with them goes their stories, their insights, and their WISDOM.  Do they care about this issue?  What do they feel is of utmost importance to them at this time in their lives . . .
 

When asked to prioritize their Legacy assets, Boomers, 55 - 75 years old, and Elders, who are at least 72+ years old, indicated that they wanted to transfer their VALUES over Money.   Here is what they prioritized:
 

First Priority, Their Family Stories:         Boomers  86%  &  Elders 74%
 

Second Choice, Financial Inheritance:     Boomers    9%  &  Elders 14%
 

Sadly very few reported that they had taken any action to share their stories.     Wouldn’t it be nice to help them do just that?
 

"Were it not for the storyteller, civilization would destroy itself.”
 -       Albert Camus
 

These two groups, Elders and Baby Boomers, have lived through, experienced, and been eyewitnesses to the major historical events of the 20th Century.  Events like:

- The Great Depression when millions of Americans lost their jobs, all their savings, and even their homes.

- The rise of Hitler and his left-wing National Socialist Workers Party and the start of WWII. 

- The Holocaust with its systematic extermination of 6 million Jewish people, all because the “State” decided that they were a problem. 

- The bombing of Pearl Harbor. 

- The dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war with Japan. 

- The Korean war. 

- The launch of Sputnik that started the Space Race with the USSR. 

- The creation of the Berlin Wall; East Germany’s closing of the border between East and West Berlin in 1961 ultimately leading to approximately 171 men, women, and children being shot in the back and killed trying to escape to the West and freedom. 

- The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when the whole world held its breath while President Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union threatened each other with a Thermo-Nuclear holocaust that would put all life on the planet in jeopardy.

- Then came the war in Vietnam that cost the lives of over 50,000 U.S. troops and severely divided the nation. 

- The assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy.

- Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon’s surface.

- The shooting of 13 students at Kent State University by Ohio National Guardsmen during an anti-war protest. 

- The seizing of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the first Islamic terror attack on U.S. soil with the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1991.  

- The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building by anti-government radicals. And, of course, they watched live TV broadcasts of the 911 attacks and the horrific sight of people leaping to their deaths from the World Trade Center buildings to avoid being burned alive. The event that led to multiple wars in the Middle East that continue to this day.

Note, all but one of these historical events occurred before the majority of the members of Generation-Z were even born.  Generation-Z consists of those 23 or younger as of 2019.  Therefore, they have no firsthand knowledge or experience to help them avoid the roads that are proven to lead to destruction.   Was their grandfather, grandmother, mother, father, or great-grandparents involved in, or an eyewitness to one of those events?  Did they know someone who was? Do they remember what they thought or felt when they heard or saw the news? How have these events affected their beliefs, their faith, and their outlook on the issues we face today?    
 

The future of our nation depends on the wisdom of the next generation.  Our children and grandchildren need to know all that history, the lessons learned and all the wisdom that was harvested through those firsthand experiences and observations. Wisdom that could guide them regarding the major issues they will face in the coming years. 

“Is not Wisdom found among the aged? Does not long-life bring understanding?”

- Job 12:12

Therefore, transferring the wisdom gained through the experiences of the previous generations to Generation-Z is crucial to the future of this nation and the generations to come.    
 

Unfortunately, today’s loud and flashy culture with its endless paths of diversion all at our fingertips via social media, and the hundreds of channels of 24/7 streaming, on-demand, entertainment programming do a good job of claiming our attention. We have little time for long deep conversations and sharing those stories and all the lessons learned from personal experiences and observations. This is tragic, for we are missing out on the transfer of all the wisdom that was harvested through those firsthand experiences and observations. All that history and the lessons learned from it.  Why is that important?  Perhaps this quote will help crystalize the reason;
 

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."                                          - George Santayana
 

That is why the goal of Saving Wisdom’s Legacy is to preserve and to pass on the stories and wisdom of our seniors and veterans to the next generations. The most significant contribution of your life may not be something you do, but someone with whom you shared your wisdom.  
 

So, who am I, and why am I asking for your help?  My name is Rob Stewart, and I have been a Christian for over 40 years.  Throughout those years, I have served in volunteer and lay ministries, including 6 years as an Elder Board member of a church with over a thousand members. My professional career was in the insurance industry. During my 28 plus years in that profession, I have been a managing partner, vice president, and a sales manager.  I have also been a sales trainer and program designer for several Fortune 100 financial services companies. I have authored numerous white papers, training manuals, and consumer buying guides. My previous writing has, directly and indirectly, helped tens of thousands of people improve their career and financial situations.  It was a satisfying career, but during the last couple of years, I have felt the Lord place a mission on my heart for connecting our Junior High and High School students with the wisdom of their elders before it is too late.      
 

Today I am using my writing and teaching talents to help seniors focus on and share their insights and wisdom regarding fifty-five of the most significant issues of life. I have designed a 2-Phase plan to accomplish this by working with the Youth Pastors of our nation’s churches.
 

Phase I.  I will provide the pastors with Facilitators Guides and training to implement the Saving Wisdom’s Legacy program.  
 

In Phase II. The students will next reach out to local Nursing Homes,  Assisted and Independent Living Facilities to offer their residents the Saving Wisdom’s Legacy program.  
 

From the day my daughter could understand the wisdom it contained, I would repeat to her the following advice, which I had been given many years before. I would say, remember, there are two paths you may take to learn the lessons of life. The first is to learn from your own experiences and mistakes, and the second is to learn from the experiences and mistakes of others who have gone before you. If you take the first path, you will be old long before you are wise enough to benefit from its lessons. However, if you choose the second path, you will be wise early in your life, and that will help you avoid many mistakes and pitfalls. My prayer is and will always be that you will choose the second path. That powerful advice had been handed down to me from a much older gentleman. A gentleman filled with wisdom that he had collected along his life’s path. And now, I had handed it down to my daughter with the hope and prayer that she will pass it on to her children and grandchildren that it may bless generations to come.
 

Those who are now in the winter of their years have fountains of wisdom. The wisdom that they would love to share with those they cherish to help them avoid many mistakes and pitfalls.  I hope you will consider helping me to help them make that possible. If you would like to support my mission to pass the wisdom of our elders to the next generation before it's too late; please Click on the Button at the top of the next column to the right.  

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