Nurturing Elders and Others:
Who can older adults ADVOCATE for?
By the Rev. Paul Graves
A funny thing happened on the way to my computer when I wrote this column. I planned to write about the importance of older adults being ADVOCATES for other persons. First, I read a local newspaper article on a man who discovered he has ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), a year ago.
After he and his fiancée first struggled through their grief over the initial diagnosis of this incurable and fatal disease, they began to look for ways to speak out for others who have ALS, but who literally have no voice. They are in the beginning stages of developing Matt’s Place Foundation.
Its ultimate goal is building lots of Matt’s Places all over the country, homes fitted with technology for ALS patients to live the last phase of their lives with as much assistance as possible. What a marvelous advocacy project!
A few hours after reading about Matt’s Place, my wife and I had lunch with United Methodist friends from Sacramento. The husband is close to 80, and told me of a great advocacy group he’s involved in through their church. They are trying to help eliminate homelessness in Sacramento by developing a housing program.
Wow! Two advocates calling for the alleviation or the elimination of big-time issues. There are advocates taking on large-vision projects all over our denomination, all over our country. For those of us who have big visions for solving problems, it’s so tempting to join them.
But what about you? Maybe you aren’t ready to tackle big-vision issues for a great number of reasons. Maybe you don’t even think you have what it takes to be an advocate. If you think that, allow me to advocate in this way: YOU WOULD BE WRONG!
Regardless of your age, regardless of your health or economic not-so-well-being, you can be an advocate for someone else! If you take your status as a breathing human being — and as a follower of Jesus– -seriously, you can be an advocate for someone else!
All it takes is your own courageous willingness to speak up for someone who cannot, or is reluctant to, speak for herself / himself.
Do you have a friend who has no supportive family nearby, but she needs to go to her doctor? Offer to be her second set of ears in the doctor’s office. Or do you have a neighbor whose nutrition is poor? Is there a way you can speak to them and find ways to eat healthier food?
Seven years ago, September 2008, was the last time I wrote about advocacy in this column-space. It’s way past time to speak up again. Advocacy is actually pretty simple to do. You are likely already doing it but may call it something else. It’s like being a friend who speaks up for your friend!
I see people advocating for others in Sandpoint all the time. But I also see persons who feel they have no one to speak for them. For a variety of reasons, they are reluctant to speak for themselves, or to act for themselves without the support of a family member or a friend.
What about a health care issue? Or, how about loneliness or isolation? Is there some kind of discrimination connected to housing, social situation, immigration, racial or gender challenges? There will be no end to the opportunities for us to be advocates for someone else — if we are courageous to live with our eyes and hearts AWAKE to who and what are around us. Advocacy may be as simple as a phone-call of friendship…or as complicated as working on a major social change.
You are likely already an advocate for someone. If so, keep up the good work. But I hope you are willing to look for other chances to advocate — speak up — for someone who has no voice or a very weak voice. As I understand Jesus, that is part of his call to each of us!
