Blogging is a powerful weapon to fight verbal abuse of all kinds. I was so glad to see that Blog Catalog had a campaign on Sept. 27 to fight abuse of all sorts.  I am passionate about verbal abuse aimed at ANYBODY. It takes so many ugly forms that it is almost hidden except deep in the memories of those who have been hurt by it.

I developed a mini-site called words can hurt or heal earlier this year. I have also written loads of articles on the topic. There is so much we can say to turn it all around. Can you imagine the impact if just on one day we all wrote words of hope and inspiration?

I am including one of those articles below. I just hope we can all join together to be sensitive about our words and the impact on the listener. What often helps me is to imagine if the same hurtful words I say were said to me in the heat of anger, how do I feel?

Thanks for listening this is an area that I hope every blogging boomer will join me in this campaign.

On Critical Humor

Critical humor

Critical humor hurts.  The young husband gently touched his wife’s full figured hips and says “ I guess we’ll be getting a king sized bed real soon. He then chuckles. Sensitive about her new weight gain, she is hurt and replies.” What are you trying to say? Are you making fun of me? He says, “You are over reacting, I was JUST KIDDING’

I laughed as a popular comedian held up a mans eyeglasses from the audience and said,” I think I can see Kansas”. The man from the audience also laughed. But I wondered if he also felt the pain of the implied criticism about his poor eyesight.
Critical humor is a put down of the person or their physical or mental weaknesses.

THINK BACK to all the times you have been the victim of criticism disguised as humor. How did it feel?  How did you react?

Most of us will attack defensively only to be told that we were over reacting.  Then we wonder if we were mistaken. After all, the person had a smile on their face and even laughed. But you still felt like they attacked you so you had to fight back somehow.

I love humor. I think it is healing, restoring and sanity in the midst of craziness. But I am convinced that it should not be used as a sneaky way to insult someone or make the abuser feel powerful. Some use it just to get a laugh.

As children many of us played the DOZENS. If you are not familiar, it was a game where each person traded insults about each other or their family. It was only effective if there was a crowd of observers that could LAUGH at the exchange. Often the person would not get angry until you talked about their mother. Ha!
Well I propose a better game to play for young folks and some adults who still practice the dozens. It’s called the POSITIVE DOZENS.
Each person tries to outdo each other with words of encouragement.  There is still room for a lot of humor but the funny thing is that playing the POSITIVE DOZENS does not hurt.  I don’t know if your Mama would be happy with that but I know mine would.

Rosie Horner

We find it helpful to make posts available from other blogging boomers that share wisdom and or expertise. This article was sent to me from a blogging boomer who found it on Digg . Don’t forget to review other posts we have had from other blogging boomers. Just go to the catergory called Big Boomer Blog World.
Enjoy this post it is a healthy reminder about the lost art of silence.

Please note that this is an article

read more | digg story

Many boomers I speak with are emerging bloggers. They may not be blogging yet but they are still thinking about why they should bother about blogging. Some are wondering how it will benefit their business. While others are hesitant because of their lack of or resistance to computer technology.

Still others are blogging with blogger or wordpress. They may be doing it on a regular basis or whenever they think about it. But at least they put a blog into action. There is also an entire world of bloggers who want to know more about the technical aspects or desire to have more functions such as plugins or widgets and lean towards wordpress.

Whatever your situation we want to understand.We are listening. We want to help the emerging blogging because someone helped us. So keep reading this blog, share with others and let us know how best to help.

Also, we also know that the younger generation has the information and us boomers have the experience. Thus, we are committed to learning as much of the information from the younger generation as possible so please take time, those of you under 45, to visit and give the insights. We will be glad to also share the the wisdom.

Ray and Rosie Horner

Old School

Now this is a great boomer blog post. I also like the title of the blog , Boomers making a difference!

read more | digg story

I just read this excellent article written by a friend of mine, Donna Starr. She really put the boomer spin on learning. How discouraging it is when someone says, “I am too old to learn …”. Enjoy the post and please share it with others.

Rosie

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those
who cannot read and write, but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Alvin Toffler

Education … it’s not just for youngsters any more. Learning should be a continual process. After leaving school, many people mistakenly believe that they have acquired all they need to know. However, in order to succeed in today’s fast-paced competitive world we must be committed to becoming life-long students. We need to look at our lives and decide what knowledge we will need to move from where we are today to where we want to be tomorrow. Also, when change comes our way, whether personal or professional, we have to be ready to grasp the knowledge and skills necessary to adjust to our new situation or environment.

I remember during the early 90’s when computers came into the workplace. Instead of being open to learning how to use them, some employees wanted to continue doing things as they had in the past. The result? Some were left behind and ill-equipped for the drastic shift to a technological workplace. But others succeeded, adapting and even excelling, in this new environment because of their eagerness to embrace learning. One person who stands out in my mind was a gentleman in my department in his late 50’s. Although he was close to retirement, he did not hesitate to attend training classes. In fact, he made sure he mastered the material presented. Because of his willingness to change and learn, he became a highly sought after resource by others in the company. What in your profession is changing? What will you need to learn in order to be successful tomorrow?

To read more click here.

Wishing You The Best Of Success
In All Your Endeavors,
Donna

reprinted with permission from Donna Satchell of STARR Consulting & Training
(www.STARRct.com - Donna@STARRct.com - 770-498-0400) Copyright © 2007 by
Donna Satchell. All rights reserved."

I hate the term, the translation and the tone of the word RETIREMENT. When I hear the word it makes me feel sleepy. I prefer and use the word TRANSITION.
I am convinced that the term retirement slows down the sharing of expertise, experience and excellence in too many people.
Now that is not true for a lot of people I know. Some of them are transitioning to create new businesses, new relationships, new learning, new ways to communicate their messages with mediums like blogging. There is so much to share, seek and salivate about.

Just want to caution us not to see retirement as a STOP sign but a powerful GREEN sign to keep our passions, potential and purposes alive!

What do you think?

Rosie