Tip: Legacy Project is one for the ages

You've lived and learned. So why not share your lessons?

In our youth-oriented society, seniors and the knowledge they've gained often are overlooked. With the goal of accessing this untapped pool of wisdom, Cornell University began the Legacy Project in 2004. Karl Pillemer, the project's founder, says the idea was to collect practical advice from older Americans and share it with younger people.

Pillemer, a professor of human development at Cornell and a gerontologist, interviewed more than 1,500 people, including several from Long Island. Most interviewees were older than 70. The primary question Pillemer and his research team asked was: "What is it that older people know that younger people don't?"

While the answers were as varied as the people and the lives they led, there were common threads. "One of their lessons is don't waste time worrying about aging," Pillemer says. "It turns out to be a lot better than they thought it would be." Some of the results of his research will be detailed in a new book, "30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice From the Wisest Americans" (Hudson Street Press, $26), due out in November.

Many of those interviewed grew up during the Great Depression, so their lessons are relevant to today's hard times. On financial issues, elders advised younger people to live within their means, good advice in a world choking on debt. And they pointed out that having a lot of money doesn't necessarily mean you'll be happy. "They said happiness is a choice we make and not a condition that happens to you," Pillemer says.

One of the most powerful insights from the older people is how short life is. "It's not a negative or a depressing thing," Pillemer says. "It makes them savor small, everyday experiences."

The Legacy Project is not only ongoing, it is expanding. A new website operated by Cornell and Pillemer, legacyproject .human.cornell.edu, invites older Americans to share their wisdom. It may be the perfect place for older folks who believe they have been tuned out by their own children and grandchildren but still want to pass on their knowledge.

"We've had so many people tell us, 'It's great to be able to talk about this,' " Pillemer says. "One man said, 'I'm so glad to have this opportunity, because my adult children would rather I pontificate elsewhere.' "