A central premise of the wonderful Modern Elder Academy (MEA) community is that those of us who’ve lived for a while have wisdom to share and experience to spread with others. By learning from one another, we can make the world a better place.

If you're reading this, chances are you're a Bibliophile, someone who loves books, rather than a Bibliophobe, someone who fears books. Perhaps you're even a Bibliosopher, someone who gains wisdom from books.

Nowadays, there are a lot of products being marketed to enhance your Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV), which is the idea that a person’s life expectancy can increase at a faster rate than their biological aging. For example, if you were 55 with a life expectancy of 86 and achieved Longevity Escape Velocity, your life expectancy could rise to 88 (or higher) by the time you turn 56, adding a year or more to your life span.

"Mentoring is an old practice revealing the inner nature and natural genius of youth, at the same time awakening the ‘inner sage’ in those who mentor....In days gone by, mentoring was linked to rites of passage in which a person becomes more conscious of the unique meaning and purpose of their own life. Initiations had two purposes:--- to introduce young people to the values and responsibilities of their immediate culture, and at a deeper level, to discover who they are, reveal the natural genius in the life of each young person. This "genius to genius" connection serves to renew a culture and preserve the imagination within it." - Michael Meade

I love teaching at MEA. My dream has come true. I walk ten minutes down the beach from my Baja home and, voila (“listo” in Spanish), I’m on campus ready to teach.

Deepak and me, we go way back! Okay, maybe NOT. Other than seeing him across the room while he gave a conference speech long ago, I’ve never met the man.

Last summer, I started writing a book about living with intention so that I didn’t die with regrets. The book was my motivation for going to MEA, as well as my motivation for getting up each day. My working title: Not Dead Yet.

Last November, I went on a week-long journey to explore my life's purpose in MEA . The workshop was amazing, the most wonderful compadres to sail along. Short of any cliché, the week was life shaking.

I was gushing with a college friend about the one-hit bands we used to love: Tommy Tutone, The Vapors, The Waitresses, Sylvester. My college music tastes stretched from 70s disco to the punk/new wave craziness of the early 80s. My friend's young adult son told us we were "dating ourselves."

The Mexican people have a lot to teach us about resourcefulness and resilience. Despite the age-old stereotype of Mexicans being lazy and taking siestas on the job, the reality is that they typically work six days a week, not five.