I often speak about the importance of having an Aging Well Attitude as an important aspect of aging. Recently inspiration has arrived in the personhood of Sister Jean Schmidt, Loyola-Chicago’s 98 year old chaplain. She has been their basketball team’s good luck charm during their NCAA March Madness tournament journey. Sister Jean has a sense of humor and is talented when it comes to branding. During her team’s Elite 8 game versus Kansas she was spotted wearing custom-made Nikes; and she is even the star of her own Bobblehead. She of course is not making any claim for profits but is simply supporting the team and university. She has become “the face of Loyola-Chicago”.
Schmidt prays with the players before games and gives them scouting reports the next day, according to the Associated Press and Fox News. Her players consider her to be their not-so-secret weapon. They have proven themselves to be a team that can’t be beat for now. Sister Jean has proven that having an Aging Well Attitude can’t be beat. In fact, the qualities and assets inherent in this story match reports of studies as to what creates quality of life and even perhaps longevity: Having a passion, dedicating oneself to the pursuit of that passion, having a sense of belonging and being a part of something greater than oneself, to be engaged and engaging….
There’s a lesson to be learned from this for us all. WHAT IS YOUR PASSION?
