Just last week my wife Elaine gave birth to our second child, Dalya Heifetz Lippmann. It’s been an amazing, awe-inspiring and of course tiring experience.
I’m not leaving the house much these days. I’m taking a lot of time to sit with Dalya, hold her, and try to let Elaine get some sleep. I’m also watching some fascinating online lectures while I hold the baby or sit nearby.
For example, I recently watched this presentation by National Geographic writer Dan Buettner. He’s traveled to study population groupings around the world in which people tend to live exceptionally long lives. He pointed to a number of interesting factors that seem to enable their longevity, including:
- Healthy diet (big surprise here, right?)
- Cultural esteem for the elderly
- Participation in spiritual community
- Rest & Sabbath (in this case he points to the 7th Day Adventists of Southern California)
- Sense of Purpose
All of these factors are of great interest to me, but I’m especially interested in the last one, a sense of purpose. Buettner mentions that people in Okinawa, a very long-lived demographic, seem keenly aware of this. In fact, while there’s no traditional Japanese/Okinawan term for ‘retirement,’ there’s a very common word used to describe ‘the reason why you live.’ To my ears the word sounds like ‘eekigai’. Buettner said that in every case when he asked an older person in Okinawa what was their eekigai, each one responded with an immediate answer. For one 102 year old Karate master, his eekigai was to teach his martial art. A 100 year old fisherman found his eekigai in providing fish for his family. For one woman, it was helping to take care of her great-great-great-granddaughter. She explained that holding the little girl, her younger counterpart by over 101 years, felt like leaping into heaven.
All of the individuals whom Buettner mentioned provide wonderful examples of the words of Psalm 92, “Od yenuvun b’seivah” (still they flourish in their old age).
I believe that Judaism, and perhaps all religious traditions, offer great potential for providing individuals and communities with the factors that Buettner mentioned. For example, our Torah aimed to imbue our ancient Israelite ancestors with a lasting mission by means of the commandment “Kedoshim tihiyu” (‘you shall be holy,’ Leviticus 19:2). The Torah was insisting that its followers should pursue a life of meaning, structure, deliberation and deep awareness of their community.
What’s your eekigai? Can a person have more than one? How many purposes can a person choose to pursue without loosing their way?
January 14, 2010 at 10:18 am |
Mazel Tov on the addition to your family! Sure wish I had those online lectures when I was up in the middle of the night with my kids. Alas, the only thing available to me was ESPN Sports Center. Not sure how much I would have learned while being half-asleep tho.
I think people can have several purposes in life. I am incredibly dedicated to giving my boys the best possible life they can have–and I often sit back and am awed at my love and commitment to my boys. Never did I imagine having those emotions prior to having kids.
IN addition to that, I’m constantly pulled to the Tikkun Olam principle–for deaf people–trying to level the playing field so that deaf people and other people of minority groups have the same access and opportunities as everyone else.
I believe the principle Tikkun Olam (even if some criticize that term as overused) is a calling–and a critical element of Reconstruction Judaism.