Guest Post

Data in the 21st century is like oil in the 18th century. In 2006, Clive Humby, a British mathematician and data science entrepreneur, made a keen observation, “Data is the new oil!”

As I write this blog, I have the row to myself on a morning flight to Cabo for MEA Mastery Week with Carl Honoré 18 hours ago I had no idea I’d be here. It had been 3+ years since I’d been in MEA’s second public cohort - Soul Train - to become a Modern Elder.

If you picture a mature Nancy Drew married to one of the Hardy Boys for decades, then you will have a mental image of the Sleuthing Silvers, a fictional Baby Boomer detective couple.

My eldest child, Vaughn, was eight months old when I needed to return to work. Those first few weeks of dropping him off were so stressful. He’d bawl as I was leaving and I’d worry about the long-term emotional damage I was causing him. Fortunately, I had a wise support network.

I’m thinking of beauty and artistry, in its many forms, and how the simplest things that inform our soul, mind, and mind’s eye when there is space and presence to do so.

We all carry this unimaginable life-force that wants to come out into the world. And it will whip us around, if we are not grounded. When younger, my own creativity was such a force. I could be so intoxicated with it that I would follow that voice anywhere. It would say to me, “Keep going! Don’t stop! You don’t need to eat! You’re so close! Isn’t this great?”

I have been reading Chip's posts eagerly in anticipation of my retirement. I was looking for inspiration, affirmation, and maybe that push I needed to take the plunge. Retirement to most people is a bittersweet moment. Yes, it's something that most people look forward to and plan for, but being the last stop at the train station has its scary moments.

2020 was the year that shook us. Covid, quarantine, anxiety, depression, isolation, burnout. And that was only the beginning.

In February I will turn 55. It is a lovely number and an easy milestone to slide into. It turns out I am the poster child for our most common demographic at MEA, age 54. Does that mean our average age will… age along with me?

CATALYST January 2020. I’m sitting in my stylist Danica’s sunny San Francisco salon, both of us gazing at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes zero in on the reason I’m there: The ¼ inch of grey that’s pushed out from my scalp.