Jimmy Carter is a Sage--for sure

As a member of the Elder Council, Jimmy Cater is already recognized as a sage.  He is a great role model for what it means to grow into a sage.  On a recent trip, I was reading the Delta Sky magazine which included an article about Carter. 

Image via Wikipedia

It reminded us that most people at age 85 are either mastering the Sunday crossword puzzle, golfing, lunching with friends, or finding some way to pass the time.  "Unless we get out ideas about retirement from Carter, in which case we don't even acknowledge the existence of such a word."

As most of you remember, Cater was president from 1977 to 1981 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for decades working for peace, democracy, and human rights.  During the past year, Carter has been to more than a dozen countries.  He is now working to fight malaria in Haiti and monitoring elections in Lebanon with The Carter Center.  He builds homes with Habitat for Humanity.  In addition, he is a painter; he has written 24 books; he teaches Sunday school at a Baptist church in Plains, Georgia.  He also spends time with his four kids, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

In essence, Carter understands that to keep living you have to keep growing, learning, and giving back. He realizes that value of leaving a legacy and continuing to work in that direction.  Carter is the perfect example of what sag-ing is all about.

While having good health is a benefit, we can all find ways to incorporate these concepts into our lives in order to live a quality life for the rest of our life.

I am on a mission to retire the word "retirement."  As with so many of the examples about which I like to blog, there is a trend for a new model of life after major career.  Call it recareering or transitioning or living the next phase.  Regardless of what we call it, we need to think about how we want to live the third chapter of life.  And the sooner we think about this the better.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Carter seeks to boost Caribbean malaria fight (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• World Habitat Day is a Reminder that Everyone Deserves Decent Housing (treehugger.com)