Saint John’s On The Lake invites aging services professionals, concerned members of the community and older adults to attend the 2023 Symposium on Aging: In Darkness and in Light: Embracing Change with Resilience, Intention and Hope. The Symposium is an opportunity to share ideas, research outcomes and lessons learned to strengthen resilience and celebrate aging. Register in whole or in part for this two-day, no-cost event and earn Continuing Education Hours (CEHs).
SESSION 1 | 9:00-10:30 a.m.
Keynote Lecture
CEH: 1.5 hours
I CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR TOMORROW
Speaker: Mark Doty, Poet, Essayist and Author
MARK DOTY
Author of nine books of poetry, winner of the 2008 National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize in the UK. He is also the author of four memoirs, as well as a book about craft and criticism. Doty has received two NEA fellowships, Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships, a Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Award and the Witter Byner Prize.
I CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR TOMORROW
Mark Doty will read poems and excerpts from prose works that examine occasions of loss and of grief and talk about the experiences and ideas that informed them. He has always used his writing as a means of negotiation with the difficult. We can't change the fact that we and those we love are mortal, but how are we to bear and accept the losses time will inevitably bring us? Where do we find strength, and the resilience to continue? Can you go on loving the world when you know that everything you love -- and you yourself -- will be swept away?
After attending this presentation, the attendee will be able to:
10:30 a.m.
Break
SESSION 2 | 10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Lecture
CEH: 1.25 hours
ON 4 YEARS OF COVID: VIRUSES, ETHICS & ART
Speaker: Craig M. Klugman, PhD
CRAIG M. KLUGMAN, PhD
Vincent de Paul Professor of Bioethics and Health Humanities, Department of Health Sciences, DePaul University
ON 4 YEARS OF COVID: VIRUSES, ETHICS & ART
Dark fell in December 2019, when officials in China reported several cases of a new virus. Four years later the world has seen over 644 million reported cases and 6.6 million logged deaths from novel 2019 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, more commonly known as COVID-19. For those of us in the United States, this seemed unprecedented. But for most of human history, viruses and bacteria have infected and killed humans, often in large numbers. The Black Death killed 20 percent of all humans on the planet and the 1918 Pandemic flu killed 50 million people—more than the battles of World War I.
In this presentation, we will explore ethical dilemmas raised by our response to the pandemic and the art created in our responses to it. We will also ask, what’s next? What are the lessons we will take away from this experience? As history has shown, the end of a pandemic often prompts a time of cultural and artistic flourishing from the Renaissance after the Black Death to the Roaring 20's after the 1918 flu. The arts can celebrate the joy of survival, mark the sorrow of loss and give form to our collective trauma. What may our world look like after COVID? What great plays will be written? What paintings will be done, and what monuments will be raised to those we have lost?
After attending this presentation, the attendee will be able to:
12:00 p.m.
Lunch
Registration is required.
SESSION 3 | 1:00-2:15 p.m.
Lecture
CEH: 1.25 hours
PROMOTING WELL-BEING THROUGH CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES: FROM MOLECULES TO MINDS, AND ON TO RELATIONSHIPS
Speaker: Thaddeus Pace, PhD
THADDEUS PACE, PhD
Associate Professor in the Colleges of Nursing (Division of Biobehavioral Health Science), Medicine (Department of Psychiatry), and Science (Department of Psychology), University of Arizona, Tucson
PROMOTING WELL-BEING THROUGH CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES: FROM MOLECULES TO MINDS, AND ON TO RELATIONSHIPS
Climate-related disasters, social and political discord and geopolitical crises have increased in recent years. These remarkable, shared sources of stress are in addition to the “everyday” challenges that people experience over the course of their lives. In the face of these challenges, contemplative practices have shown promise to promote resilience and well-being. The benefits of contemplative practices may be especially important for those who have experienced trauma and chronic illness, as well as those who are at risk for illness subsequent to trauma exposure. Found across all major faith traditions, contemplative practices include rituals, prayer, creative and relational practices, movement and different forms of meditation. Scientific research has found that various contemplative practices including yoga, mindfulness meditation and compassion meditation can modulate brain activity, optimize stress-related biology and reduce psychological distress and improve affect. After describing different contemplative practices, this presentation will explore how contemplative practices may encourage well-being not just for individuals, but also for families and communities. Attention will be given to the biological, psychological and social pathways involved. A special focus will be on how contemplative practices may benefit those living with chronic illness, and those at risk for chronic illness. The presentation will conclude with a discussion about the research around one secular compassion meditation program based on Tibetan lojong, called Cognitively Based Compassion Training.
After attending this presentation, the attendee will be able to:
2:15 p.m.
Break
CONCURRENT SESSIONS: CHOOSE ONE
SESSION 4A | 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Practicum
CEH: 1.5 hours
THE ART OF MINDFULNESS
Speaker: Hope Heavenrich
HOPE HEAVENRICH
Museum educator and founder of Art Matters with Hope focusing on education, professional development and well-being. Hope has been certified in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and teaching MBSR through Brown University. She has presented all over the country and Italy on her work infusing the humanities into health care education. Hope has co-published a number of articles on the benefits of using art in health care education and will travel to Paris in June 2023, to present at the Sorbonne’s art and medicine symposium.
THE ART OF MINDFULNESS
After attending this presentation, the attendees will be able to:
SESSION 4B | 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Practicum
CEH: 1.5 hours
STRENGTHENING OUR RESILIENCE MUSCLES
Speaker: The Rev. Dr. Scott Stoner
THE REV. DR. SCOTT STONER
President and Executive Director of the Samaritan Family Wellness Foundation
STRENGTHENING OUR RESILIENCE MUSCLES
This workshop will address why the traditional definition of resilience which is to "bounce back," is no longer helpful and will present a new way to understand this essential topic which is foundational to mental health and well-being. Resilience is not something a person either has or does not have. Instead, there are specific practices that a person can do to strengthen their capacity for resilience in the face of change and transition. The workshop will be fun (a sense of humor is key to resilience!), informative and interactive; participants will leave with practical steps to enhance their resilience and overall well-being.
After attending this presentation, the attendees will be able to:
CONCURRENT SESSIONS: CHOOSE ONE
SESSION 5A | 9:00-10:15 a.m.
Virtual Lecture
CEH: 1.25 hours
THE WISDOM OF CARE OF AGING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: THE ART OF LIVING AND DYING
Speaker: Arthur Kleinman, MD
ARTHUR KLEINMAN, MD
Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine and of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences
THE WISDOM OF CARE FOR AGING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: THE ART OF LIVING AND DYING
We are accustomed to think of old age as a time of diminishing energy, increasing risk for chronic disease, and filled with losses, including the anticipation of our own demise. This talk reimagines aging as a final stage of human development in which the wisdom of care can come to the fore and animate, enrich, and redirect our lives in such a way as to create a much more positive picture about what this final stage of living and dying is about. The talk is based in my 2019 book, The Soul of Care and my own experiences of life and of directing a cross-cultural project on Social Technology for Global Aging and Eldercare in China.
After attending this presentation, the attendees will be able to:
SESSION 5B | 9:00-10:15 a.m.
Lecture
CEH: 1.25 hours
EMBRACING WISDOM: COMPASSION, RESILIENCE AND EMOTIONAL AWARENESS IN AGING
Speaker: M. Bento Soares, PhD
M. BENTO SOARES, PhD
Professor of Cancer Biology and Pharmacology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria
EMBRACING WISDOM: COMPASSION, RESILIENCE AND EMOTIONAL AWARENESS IN AGING
In this presentation, Dr. Bento Soares will discuss how well-being and compassion are skills that can be developed with training, and the importance of kindly attending to and befriending our emotions with mindful awareness. Self-Compassion will be introduced as promoting health and well-being while being foundational for compassion towards others. Participants will have the opportunity to learn basic concepts about emotions and will be led to reflect on the hidden value in suffering, uncovering silver linings and embodied wisdom, altogether conducive to an appreciation of aging. The presentation will end with discussions and reflections on our tendency to focus on our deficiencies, weaknesses, misfortunates, while overlooking our good qualities, strengths, and positive experiences, concluding with a reflection on the power of gratitude.
After attending this presentation, the attendees will be able to:
10:15 a.m.
Break
SESSION 6 | 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Lecture
CEH: 1.5 hours
SPIRIT, RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE
Speaker: Tink Tinker, PhD
TINK TINKER, PhD
American Indian scholar, Professor Emeritus, Iliff School of Theology
SPIRIT, RESISTANCE AND RESILIENCE
Speaking from a uniquely American perspective, this presentation probes American Indian culture, its religious and cultural legacy in an environment altered not only by current conditions but also by its ambiguous relationship to the tradition-historic Christianity that colonized and converted it.
After five hundred years of conquest and social destruction, any useful reflection must come to terms with the political state of Indian affairs and indigenous hopes and visions for recovering the health and well-being of Indian communities. This session offers an overview of contemporary native American culture and its perilous state. Critical of recent liberal and New Age co-opting of indigenous spiritual practices, it shows how Native insights into the Sacred Other and sacred space helpfully reconfigure traditional ideas of God, the notion of the " reign of God", and our relation to the earth. From this basis it offers novel proposals about cultural survival and identity, sustainability, and the endangered health of older Native Americans.
After attending this presentation, the attendees will be able to:
12:00 p.m.
Lunch
Registration is required.
SESSION 7 | 1:00-2:30 p.m.
Lecture
CEH: 1.5 hours
NUGGETS BY DAY AND GEMS BY NIGHT: LESSONS FROM SUFFERING
Speaker: Bishop Rudolph W. McKissick, Jr.
NUGGETS BY DAY AND GEMS BY NIGHT: LESSONS FROM SUFFERING
In August of 2008, Bishop Rudolph McKissick underwent an extensive spinal surgery that resulted in a four-month hiatus and birthed a multiplicity of other physical challenges, including of the possibility of never proclaiming the Word of God again or a role in opera and sacred music. In this presentation, McKissick invites us to journey with him from discovery through recovery and see how faith not only fostered a medical miracle in his life but also how it revealed to him spiritual principles for life that he now shares with all. Although the role of the traditional church has changed and once-pervasive beliefs have eroded, McKissick’s keen exegetical eye and theological depth are uniquely faithful to the integrity of the African American lens through which he views his compelling social hermeneutic.
After attending this presentation, the attendees will be able to:
BISHOP RUDOLPH W. MCKISSICK, JR. M.DIV., D.MIN. 
