Dec. 19th--For Our Elders

To be our best selves. What an achievement that is. Like no other, it is an achievement that repeats often and is also often elusive as we question who we are and how we show up. Are we in our best guise? Are we somehow letting ourselves and others down? Elders, those people who have showed up in our lives with great presence or great love or great wisdom (or maybe all three), are essential in how we grow into our best selves and how we show up as our best selves.

Carmen Barsody, Fools co-founder, with Ade Kroll (1939-2025), faithful Franciscan and Fool. For many years, she was our companion and Elder.

Today, the First Day of Winter Solstice, is a day for looking back and recognizing specific people who have been Elders to us. Sometimes they are in our lives for only a moment or two, sometimes for years and years. Sometimes they are related by birth and sometimes they arrive as strangers and then become essential to us.

An Elder holds up a mirror so we can see ourselves clearly. They nod as we learn and encourage when we doubt ourselves. They may be witnesses to our greatest sorrows or our greatest weakness or our greatest joy. They teach us new skills. They show us how to be with others and how to love.

Above all, we know we could not be who we are today were it not for our Elders. Each of us and all of us have yet more to do to find our way, but for now, we can take a moment to honor those who have brought us to this moment.

This Solstice Season, we Fools are remembering our Elders, some of whom, too many of whom have become Ancestors in the last year. Here are some we are remembering with special gratitude in this moment as they truly taught us how to be our best selves:

Ade Krolls and Ed Bowers: For Ade Kroll, aFool and Franciscan, every moment of creativity and community was a celebration of life. There was and is nothing more precious than the life force that unites us and all creation throughout the universe—so Ade reminded us with each day.  Ed Bowers (sitting with Ade), poet and steady companion to Fools, has provoked, urged and provided poetry to the Fools since the earliest days. Ed's poetic wit and insight are heart and soul those of a Faithful Fool.

Robert-Harry Roven: As the creator WRITE ON!!, a writing practice based on reflection, collaboration, and positive engagement with one another’s writing, Robert-Harry gently called so many poets to their voices, provided a space for words to take flight. His practice lives on in Kind Fools in Buffalo and in countless works of poetry that live and soar to this day.

Kim Diamond: Shy on the surface, fiercely courageous in daily life, she taught us all about what it means to live on after the worst happens. As a Fool, she discovered poetry, activism, and adopted a new name to start a new life.

Our task in honoring these particularly Faithful Fools is to remember and cherish how they brought us to our better selves. As you reflect on this last year and who you are today, we invite you to think about the people who made you who you are today.