Long Straw Club

Twenty-five years ago we started The Long Straw Club at our first assisted living community to fulfill an intention to provide a more meaningful and deeper spiritual and intellectual experience for our elders. In these early heady days of 2000, we tried a lot of different approaches, including reading Dante's Inferno, which became a standing-room-only event that Denver's Channel 9 showed up to tape one day.

Today we heard from Maya that Lhoppon (pronounced Lopin) Rinpoche is excited to join us once a month for the Long Straw Club. Maya is Rinpoche's secretary. Their Mipham Shedra Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center is located near The Retreat at Church Ranch. Rinpoche is an honorific title that translates as Precious One in Tibetan.

Additionally, Rabbi Heilman from Congregation B'nai Torah synagogue in Broomfield has also offered to lead the Long Straw Club once a month. This is a great and auspicious beginning in our efforts to find World Wisdom teachers to join the Long Straw Club and lead it into the future. Our residents' spiritual lives and intellectual curiosities will greatly benefit.

We will continue to search for World Wisdom teachers that represent all of the great spiritual traditions to join us. These could be Native American elders, Shamans, Priests, Ministers, etc. All are welcome. If anyone knows of such luminaries, please forward their contact information to me.