A Problem For The Pagan World
Issac Bonewits writes on his webpage:
“Something that is perhaps more important than responding to one Pagan elder?s plight, however, is the now obvious and growing need to set up long term solutions to help all of us old coots who have worked so hard for this community. If we are to be a healthy and functional family of religions, we can?t just use up and throw away our elders, whether they are sages or crones. It is way past time to begin setting up Pagan Old Folks Homes and other Pagan charities all around the U.S., Canada, Australia, the Celtic Isles, and elsewhere.”
As the much larger second wave of modern pagan leaders enter retirement age how will those who didn’t score a lucrative publishing career or some other form of safety net be taken care of? Currently our collective community because it is so diverse (and is many cases anti-establishment) has a hard time building infrastructures to take care of the people who have helped shape our collective faith(s). Pagan leaders of all stripes for the most part do not have the luxury of spending their days lecturing or writing memoirs or overseeing the next generation of leaders, most of their time is spent working “mundane” jobs to keep themselves afloat. When they become too old or infirm to juggle such a hectic schedule they usually drop off the pagan map and in many cases are quickly forgotten. But perhaps if we are ready to have seminaries maybe we are ready for some fledgling groups who take care of our heritage.
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