The Unique Features of "52 Shades of Growing Together"

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This is a Substack.com service of weekly stories. They are fiction but based on my experience as an 82-year-old social observer, retired Fortune 500 leader at the vice presidential level, and as a person with a disability.

Each six-minute story is about a fictional older adult who uses hindsight and foresight to offer a takeaway tip and a discussion question about an ageism  or ableism issue or an impediment to well being mature individuals often encounter as they live through various shades of aging.

Subscribers can access 100 stories right now. I add a new story every week.    

My stories prompt members of the “52 Shades of Growing Together"  community to share new insights and values with family and friends.   

That sharing can happen during in-person visits, by email or by phone.

Subscribing to my Substack.com service also provides an easy, effective and safe way to journal online over a year’s time about fourth-quarter-of-life topics not found anywhere else. 

You and your parent may feel changed by taking a few minutes each week to reflect on the story moments that fit your family’s life.

With each Wednesday short story, you’ll receive a simple prompt that can be completed in under a minute.

Twice early in your subscription, you and your parent can take a 45-second “pulse” self-assessment with three click-based questions that helps you notice what the story stirred up, including any ageism or ableism assumptions worth rethinking.

Then, once a month, you’ll have the option to complete a 5–7 question check-in that makes your growth more visible in understanding aging, ageism, ableism, and each other.

Most answers are multiple choice or 0–10 ratings, with an optional short response, so everything stays light, quick, and private.

A brief “You’re Growing” recap highlights the month’s progress and offers one small next step you can try together.

First, I believe it’s impossible not to love (appreciate) someone who has shared a personal story.  Stories bring us together.

We need more opportunities to appreciate one another these days.

Second, through stories, we all grow more mature in our understanding of life’s complicated issues. And that brings us together.  

Third, personal stories give older adults an opportunity to share time-tested insight with family and friends. Newly discovered insights bring us together.

That's what Pam, my wife, and I (both still on the lean side of our 80th decade on this Earth) have learned during the last five years from our 300 fellow residents/neighbors at The Pillars of Prospect Park, a senior living community in Minneapolis, MN.

For nearly 30 years, I served as a corporate communication officer for three presidents of Foremost Farms USA, a regional dairy cooperative.

At the vice president level, I learned that understanding, dedication and strategy are essential for gaining meaningful corporate transformation.

Transformation requires commitment to a common vision. I fostered the Foremost Farms USA vision through storytelling and solid journalism.

Using my transformation experience to guide people through their own growth in understanding life and its enigmas has long been my passion.

Now I’m again using stories to illustrate shifts in our perception as we age.

And I’m doing so by drawing upon the psycho-social observations of researchers Erik Erikson and Lars Tornstam and author Richard Leider. 

Those theories suggest we tend to look back on life with a sense of wholeness and satisfaction. We have an increased desire to understand ourselves and focus on the needs of others as we age, to find new meaning in the life we have lived and to discover a new purpose for living. purposeful living.