eldershipEldership - a life of service
Friendship, all the time, anywhere and everywhere
Jim RasmussonWhen I was a little kid, I used to marvel at how my dad could make friends with anyone.  Some of his friends were only temporary, like the the waitress at a restaurant, or the man in front of him in line at the DMV, while others were more consistent like the teller at the bank, or the clerk at the grocery store.  He always made an effort to call them by name, and they remembered his.  Their faces always lit up when he returned to their places of business.  He burned no bridges, and supported many joists within community.

So when I asked him to come support the community and myself through my elder initiation, I had no doubt that Dad would make friends with everyone on the land.  Within minutes, he had made himself right at home.  He happily cleaned up the kitchen mess left by a goblin peanut butter and jelly lover.  He swung an axe splitting wood while asking questions to elicit lifetime stories from fellow workers.  By sharing my childhood stories with my friends, he unwittingly brought a deeper level of intimacy to my friendships.  He observed everything quietly from behind the scenes, and did whatever he could to soothe bruised egos, to smooth rough waters between individuals, and to soften the jagged path of daunting tasks.

At the Homecoming Celebration, Dad was acknowledged by the community.  As I was honored as an elder, my friends and fellow elders also honored my father for his willingness to serve, lovingly and unconditionally.  Somehow, the words spoken by others to me about my father matched almost identically the words spoken by others to my father about me.  Like father like daughter.

Although I cannot express in words the power of my initiation experience, I have realized that since becoming and elder I have a greater capacity for love, a greater ability to appreciate and validate every person, despite and because of their faults and failings.  In essence, becoming an elder has imbued upon me the responsibility of being a friend to anyone and everyone, at their best and at their worst, at any moment in time, as I have witnessed my father do my whole life.
I have come to learn that the wisdom I attained during my initiation has always been in my DNA, gifted to me by my father. For this, I am forever grateful.