grandmology™
/gran(d)•'mä•lə•ˌjē/ noun :
(1) the belief that aging is a privilege.
(2) the study of grandmothers and women who do not fear the end of life.
(3) the contemplation of womanhood throughout all seasons of the lifespan.
(4) an elderly woman's philosophy of her life's value, meaning, and legacy.
This project is dedicated to my maternal grandmother, who lived through world wars before a long Winter of widowhood.
Grandmama was one of my best friends and role models until she passed around her 99th birthday. She was born in the Roaring 1920s, grew up during the Great Depression, met her war captive husband after WWII, and then raised 9 children with him. She retired by my parents and eventually became my favorite pen pal until the long-awaited, peaceful end.
We live in a world so vastly different from hers, and yet here we are, living the Roaring 20s all over again. Today's global lexicon normalizes certain sentiments and questions from a century ago that most of us never imagined could possibly resurrect in the living memory of our elders.
Without exaggeration, I miss my Grandmama every day. I yearn to be like her, but I live in different times with different people. In many ways, mine are softer and easier times. In other ways, modern times are surprisingly harder.
It is easy to squander time and energy without regard for the future. It is easy to spend your very life itself on credit, accrue debt, ignore the interest. It is difficult to foresee a much, much longer life with decreasing energy and earning power. "Youth is wasted on the young," as our elders say.
Yes, the world might end tomorrow. But what if you live to 100 anyway? That was Grandmama's story, though it wasn't her plan.
"Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
~ Mary Oliver, "A Summer Day" (1992)
Grandmology is my attempt to enshrine the "ominous positivity" that was so idiosyncratic of my beloved Grandmama, and probably of her foremothers too. It is a mindset, a philosophy — not another religion.
Grandmology does not segment time by rigid ages, but by fluid stages. The four axial seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter) offer a metaphorical framework to measure the lifespan in its successive stages. More on the seasons of womanhood here.
For example, in Spring, a woman at age 20 can enter the same season of motherhood as a woman at 40. A woman might taste her very first financial independence of Summer at 60, while a woman at 30 might be ready for the generous harvest of Autumn. But only the few who attain the snowlike fragility of Winter will ever get the coveted privilege of knowing all seasons across the lifespan.
Neither the youth and health of Spring, the beauty and freedom of Summer, nor the status and wealth of Autumn are the climax of the human experience; instead, the secret wisdom of Winter is the highest prize of a life lived honorably and lovingly.
The philosophy is syncretic: it blends teleology, agathism, stoicism, and other worldviews that do not dread aging or death, but eagerly embrace the natural progression of a meaningful life.
It is teleological: a life well lived begins with the end in mind, and does not pine with regret for youthful years past.
It is optimistic, or agathistic: life may get worse before it gets better, but a purposeful life ultimately tends toward optimization.
It is stoic and autotelic: an optimal life may not require health, wealth, or extrinsic pleasures, but it requires virtue.
For as long as I can remember, I have said that my destiny is to become a sassy grandma. I'm just killing time until then.
But what to do in the meantime?
My Grandmama's philosophy explains why I want to become a sassy grandma. My financial and legal training explores how to do so, one season at a time.
Across the world, my loved ones have one desire in common: we want to enjoy every corner of earth in every season of life, especially in old age. Ideally, we will retire together with a worldwide portfolio of shared homes that we actually use.
Today, we are preparing our way there through higher education, residential real estate, effective trusts, entrepreneurial tax strategies, medical tourism, and proper retirement planning. More on our educational seminars here.
My professional services are intended for women, and tailored to each season of womanhood; but the higher philosophy of grandmology™ (and grandpology™, to be continued) is for everyone.
A "grandmologist" is simply a future granny, or anyone who happily accepts their destiny of old age and inevitable death. In my opinion, a “future granny” is not necessarily an elderly person, or a (grand)parent, or even a lady.
A future granny is someone who adopts the sage mentality of a quintessential elderly woman: her orientation toward the future, her confidence in aging, her wisdom in suffering, her locus of hopefulness, and her transcendent communion with the silent souls of all forgotten ancestors and all future beneficiaries. In the simpler words of Marcus Aurelius: amor fati.
"For those who have no internal means of living well and happily, every age is difficult; but for those who seek all good from themselves, nothing can seem evil that must follow from the laws of nature.”
~ Cicero quoting Cato the Elder, On Aging and Death
Grandmology is both serious and deeply unserious. This silly project is more than a philosophy, and more than "edutainment." My quiet endgoal is much (much) bigger in the spaces of international finance and law, but for now, let's just say that I'm determined to make sure that my friends and family retire securely. I will educate you to help yours do the same.
Finally, thank you for sharing your time and attention with me. It is the most precious currency of your one wild and precious life.