I have found Brains on Fire in the thread of research I’m accumulating in my gerontology studies at Portland Community College in Oregon. After raising four children and reaching my midfifties, I’m finally on my way to completing my bachelor’s degree. I have a burning desire to be a change-agent in the way we educate and communicate across generations. Lifelong learning is the catch phrase that seems to describe how older people are able to stay connected to the “real” world intellectually, emotionally and physically. Yet, our public education system is struggling and needs the kind of inspiration I hear in your description of the people you represent at St. Francis Hospital. Since we are a public institution our efforts to “light the fire” for students, faculty and staff is plagued with bureaucracy and frustration. My focus of study is to build awareness around the topic of intergenerational liaisons, collaboration and interdependence. I believe that we are living in a time when policies and practices of the past will be inevitably changed in regard to the aging process. For starters our gerontology students have formed a student resource initiative called the Wisdom Keepers. It’s our hope to become a place where older students and people in our community can come to find a listening ear, encouragement and resources to build a bright future. When we talk about the future of the baby boomers, the tendency to think “retirement” is commonplace, yet we know that many will not retire in the traditional sense because their identity is not in leaving what they have had but in creating something useful and significant before they leave this life. Reading your blog has inspired me. I look forward to hearing more of what you do and how fired up people become in following your initiatives.