Mindfulness, vulnerability, and love: Spiritual lessons from frail elders, earnest young pilgrims, and middle aged rockers

Gerontologists have studied religion and spirituality for almost three decades. Much of this work focuses on determining how elders' religious and spiritual beliefs and practices affect various indicators of well-being. This paper critiques many of the assumptions underlying this research and suggests alternatives to individualistic formulations of well-being. Experiences in spiritual communities of various types may help aging persons to be mindfully present to others, to recognize that all are vulnerable to the afflictions of aging and the certainty of death, and to love and care for others while working to promote justice. In this paper, I describe how my marriage to a minister enabled me to develop relationships with frail elders and young adults seeking to live faithfully. These friends have influenced my work and have helped to shape my views on my own aging.     

“L” is for Looking Again

This paper focuses on an important aspect of the Showtime television series The L Word: its exploration of the representation of gender and sexuality in contemporary visual art. The program presents a sophisticated feminist perspective on the histories of female and lesbian representation, and it uses the work of particular contemporary artists, who are known for their engagement with questions of female, lesbian, and/or queer representation, to advance its critique of a long history of erasure, misrepresentation, and objectification. Simultaneously, while foregrounding its awareness of the contradictions of trying to create new forms of representation in a thoroughly commercial and commodified context, the program uses works of art to present the possibility of inventing alternative images or of redefining existing ones. The show's consistent attention to innovative art constitutes a formal device that offers a counter-discourse to those conventions of representation required by the show's need to appeal to a broad audience. In this way, The L Word offers attentive viewers new ways to look at and think about apparently familiar images and narratives.     

A forum for foster children

As part of a joint conference, foster children from five to 20 years of age attended a group session to explore their thoughts and feelings about foster care. The professional leaders reported their observations to a subsequent meeting of foster parents and caseworkers. The comments and behaviors of the children at this meeting were both illuminating and moving. Foster children must be heard.     

Child labor: a forgotten focus for child welfare.

Child labor is driven by child and family impoverishment, market forces, and political apathy concerning the rights of the child. Although a fundamental concern of the early 20th century child welfare system, today child labor is often seen as outside the scope of child welfare and child protective services. Making child labor a focus of child advocacy activity once again could do much to better the lives of children.