{"id":1014,"date":"2010-08-23T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-23T10:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people\/"},"modified":"2010-08-23T10:07:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T10:07:00","slug":"new-idea-for-old-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html","title":{"rendered":"New Idea for Old People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

The demographics reveal that our population is aging fast. We\u2019re living longer. Health care will be expensive. Many of us will not have enough money laid up for a long old age. How are we going to manage to look after all the old folks? The church will have to imagine how to deal with all the old people. Now, one of my problems is that I have more ideas than time to make them work, but here\u2019s an idea that I think would be wonderful.<\/p>\n

First you take the model of a Carthusian monastery. Each person has a two roomed cell that opens onto a shared cloister on one end and into a private walled garden on the other end. Each person\u2019s accommodation is small, but there is common space: an adoration chapel, library, calefactory, clinic and a refectory, and single old people come to live there together. This is a community for committed Catholics, and it\u2019s built next to a parish church where daily Mass is offered.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, instead of being out in the country, it\u2019s in the town. This means the residents can be involved in the wider community. They can do community work, help the poor, get involved in the local schools. They won\u2019t need a car because they can walk to the supermarket or the coffee shop or the doctor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

How to fund such a project? One model which works is that the old person, on admittance, (just like in a monastic community) signs over all their property and wealth. For this they will be assured of loving, Catholic care until their natural death. No \u2018pop off pills\u2019 in this place. If they live until they\u2019re 127 the community loses out financially, but if they check out early the community (and everyone in it) benefits. Of course this solution is not terribly popular with the offspring of old people, but lots of old people won\u2019t have anyone to look after them, so it might be attractive to them.<\/p>\n

Last thing: we need people to look after the old people. The way to do this is to have not-so-old old people do that work. Let the younger members of the community look after the older ones.<\/p>\n

There happens to be about five acres of land adjacent to the Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Greenville SC. All we need now is an entrepreneurial type dreamer-manager and a couple of Catholic billionaires with no idea what to do with their money\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The demographics reveal that our population is aging fast. We\u2019re living longer. Health care will be expensive. Many of us will not have enough money laid up for a long old age. How are we going to manage to look after all the old folks? The church will have to imagine how to deal with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Idea for Old People<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The demographics reveal that our population is aging fast. We're living longer. Health care will be expensive. Many of us will not have enough money laid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Idea for Old People\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The demographics reveal that our population is aging fast. We're living longer. Health care will be expensive. Many of us will not have enough money laid\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-23T10:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_5BV_YADVD7o\/THJ_eLd7M2I\/AAAAAAAAEzY\/4DkIavmJCrI\/s320\/old-people-dancing.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html\",\"name\":\"New Idea for Old People\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-23T10:07:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-08-23T10:07:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\"},\"description\":\"The demographics reveal that our population is aging fast. We're living longer. Health care will be expensive. Many of us will not have enough money laid\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Idea for Old People\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Idea for Old People","description":"The demographics reveal that our population is aging fast. We're living longer. Health care will be expensive. Many of us will not have enough money laid","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Idea for Old People","og_description":"The demographics reveal that our population is aging fast. We're living longer. Health care will be expensive. Many of us will not have enough money laid","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html","og_site_name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","article_published_time":"2010-08-23T10:07:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_5BV_YADVD7o\/THJ_eLd7M2I\/AAAAAAAAEzY\/4DkIavmJCrI\/s320\/old-people-dancing.jpg"}],"author":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html","name":"New Idea for Old People","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-08-23T10:07:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-08-23T10:07:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad"},"description":"The demographics reveal that our population is aging fast. We're living longer. Health care will be expensive. Many of us will not have enough money laid","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2010\/08\/new-idea-for-old-people.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Idea for Old People"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","caption":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}