Friday Featured Friend -- Elgin Draper

I wanted to share a special person with you this week, Elgin Draper. He is my 93 year old neighbor, as sprightly and able as anyone 30 years younger than him and a great source of wisdom.

Elgin has had many roles in his life. He has been a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, a teacher, a farmer, a professional, a cook, a traveler, a gardener, a singer, and many other things besides. He says that he is incredibly fortunate to have lived such an amazing life and that he expects much more to come yet!

Elgin grows a lot of his own vegetables in his year-round vegetable garden and he adores flowers. He says his garden keeps him fit and aware of what nature has to share. Elgin tells me that he understands why it is important for people to have a concept of protecting the environment but it bothers him that this has become a distinct "thing to do", apart from our daily lives. For him, nature, the environment, the seasons, and all that constitutes the "environment" are a fact of his everyday life, to be attended to, cared for, and to remain attuned to. In other words, Elgin doesn't make it into a concept or a cause, he just "is" in his environment, relying on it to sustain him and in turn, doing his best to care for the garden, the native wildlife, the trees around him.

I asked Elgin about his children and grandchildren. He has many! He tells me that it has always been a deep privilege to have known all of his children and grandchildren and that he has always treasured them for who they are, and whatever achievements they make for themselves in life. He is adamant that teaching children includes the subject of "mistakes". Elgin says "Too many people think that mistakes are terrible things. That's not true. Mistakes are simply another side of learning, another way of seeing the world. And from mistakes grow many amazing things." His worry is that by raising children to be afraid of making mistakes, we risk curtailing their creativity and teaching them to be risk averse and fearful. Instead, Elgin says that children need to learn who they are by doing, experimenting, and occasionally getting it totally wrong. In a very gracious and diplomatic way, Elgin tells me I could do with a bit more of letting go of my own fear of getting things wrong too. That touched my heart -- he is such a wise soul!

Elgin doesn't know how many "seasons" he has left but he says he's going to make the most of every season to come. He showed me his penciled plans for the spring garden (it'll be spring in New Zealand shortly) and proudly tells me that he even has some of the grandchildren coming over the help till the soil and plant. I said I'm game for pitching in too, as there's a lot of gardening wisdom for me to learn from! Thanks to Elgin for our lovely chat at the kitchen table with the hot chocolates. You're a very amazing, wise person even though I know you'll never read that here because you don't own a computer -- I'll just remember to tell you next time!

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This is to be my last featured friend. I have really, absolutely enjoyed bringing you a vast array of wonderful friends and I hope that some of them have touched your lives as they have touched mine. And dear readers, it has been a real privilege to have so many of you let me into your lives to share the goodness, kindness, enthusiasm and sheer amazingness of all that you are contributing to humanity and our planet. Keep doing the amazing things you're doing, keep on being the wonderful people you are, and I will be looking out for all of you as you continue to make this world a better place. ~ Felicity