Author,
teacher, and lecturer Huston Smith is best known for his
scholarship, being the father of world’s religions studies
in America. But on December 27, 2009, Ken Dychtwald,
psychologist, gerontologist, and visionary thinker on the
subject of the age wave that is upon us, interviewed Smith
with the objective of getting not his academic view, but
rather his personal view, of the maturation process.
Dychtwald brought out the warmth, depth, common sense, and
wonderful humor of Huston Smith in the course of elucidating
Smith’s perspective on life at 90 from the age of 90-plus.
Huston Smith has been a pioneer and role model for the Boomer
generation in the field of Religious Pluralism. He now has
something to teach about the aging process.
The
two men developed a wonderful rapport, Smith being elated to
encounter in Dychtwald an interviewer with a sharp mind and
novel approach. At one point, he turned to Dychtwald, arms
spread wide, saying, “If you see an opening, hit me!”
…much to Dychtwald’s delight.
Ken
Dychtwald has for decades studied and interviewed many
seniors, but found Smith unique. To quote Dychtwald about the
interview: “One of the things that surprised me most … was
his sense of humor, his playfulness. …Being in the presence
of a deep-thinking philosopher and religious expert in his
nineties who was boyish, who was teasing, who was in the
sparring action of the interview, who was having fun, who was
clever and wry and creative with his mind as any 12 or 15 or
25 year old I’ve met, was an incredible experience.”
Special
Thanks to Rev. Heng Sure and The
Institute for World Religions in Berkeley, California for
providing the venue.
EXTRAS include
About Huston Smith:
Film biography
About Ken Dychtwald
About Institute for World Religions & Berkeley Buddhist
Monastery
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