The Condo

In traditional societies, elders-a resource for maturity and wisdom-were revered and sought out for advice and perspective. They lived among us. In our current youth-centered culture, our elders are often isolated from us. They may escape from the pace and complexity of that youth culture by living in separate spaces-retirement communities. Since we don't live in close proximity to our elders, we can miss out on this resource when we need it most. This story is about how people learn something from experience. It's about how a collection of people, an enclave of sorts, can point up some larger discoveries of the human condition. It's about how one person is affected by the group. It's also about aging, how a person slowly grasps a new set of values as situations change, as one's body changes, as one's mind undergoes the inevitable slow decay that no longer supports earlier perspectives, as one gradually perceives in the misty distance the approaching end. It's about confronting that end when the mist clears.