Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.

KALAMAZOO, MI — What is a life well lived?

Some of us are getting up in years, and wonder if we've figured it out, or if we still need to keep working on it. Others are at the crossroads of making college and career decisions that will have impacts down the road.

Whether you're Gen Z or a Baby Boomer, or somewhere in between, "A Life Well Lived — Kalamazoo" may help in providing some intergenerational perspective and exchange of hopes, fears, and ideas. Five events from October to March will center on a dialogue around that big question: What makes a life well lived?

The series is a collaboration between the Kalamazoo Lyceum, Western Michigan University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), and the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society.

We caught Matthew Miller, founder of the Kalamazoo Lyceum, on his walk home from class in Ann Arbor, where he's finishing up his last semester in the University of Michigan's social work program, to spring a few big questions on him.

What is a full and purposeful life? What is a life well lived? When do we figure that out?

Taylor ScamehornMatthew Miller, Lyceum founder, introduces the panel members."I mean, personally, I would say there's no set time," he says. "It's solely based on the experiences that you dive into."

Miller uses the last Kalamazoo Lyceum panel, with Ben Brown, Sister Christine Parks, and youth activist Mia Breznau, as an example.

"You had a youth activist, Mia, who I think has so much wisdom — and just as much wisdom as the two panelists who were also there who were older than her," Miller says. 

"When we live an experience, when we try to take advantage of life fully —  and that is through spending time with people, that is through taking advantage of opportunities that come our way, to just learning something new — to me, it's through those things, when I have lived my life most fully."

Inspiration for the collaborative project came from documentarian Sky Bergman's "Lives Well Lived." 

No one believed that Bergman's 99-year-old grandmother Evelyn Ricciuti regularly hit the gym to work out, so Bergman started filming her. This led to her interviewing seniors in their 70s to 100s about their takes on living a full life.

The Life Well Lived series will begin with a showing of "Lives Well Lived," on Oct. 5, and end on March 15 with a visit from honorary speaker Bergman. Between it all will be events involving photography, books, and discussions of the topic.

Dr. Toni Woolfork-Barnes, Director of the WMU Osher Lifelong Learning Institute“The wisdom and vision held by our youngest and oldest generations is critical to helping us build a better Kalamazoo and world. We look forward to hearing those voices and more during this series,” Dr. Toni Woolfork-Barnes, Director of the WMU Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), says in a press release.

Miller, Woolfork-Barnes, and Dr. Sandra Borden, Director of the WMU Ethics Center, realized they had related, shared missions, so they collaborated on the community event.

"Through our conversations, we realized that there's an obvious shared mission here of wanting to improve community life, especially genuine relationship building," Miller says. 

"Toni with older adults who are continuing their education (at OLLI), with Sandy, who is working in an ethics center asking those deep philosophical questions of life while at the same time doing very direct work to engage people. And then the Lyceum has all been about how do we work across differences, see our shared humanity through genuine relationship building, and through conversation," he says.

Dr. Sandra Borden, Director of Western Michigan University's Ethics CenterBorden says via a press release, “The events we have planned for the coming months as part of 'A Life Well Lived - Kalamazoo' will challenge us to think about what is genuinely good for us in our relationships, our work, and our life projects. We know the Kalamazoo area has so much to offer in helping us show the way towards a life well lived for all.”

Speaking from Ann Arbor, Miller thinks about that question of what is a life well lived, anyway.

He says he's cut down on his screen time and is trying to get rid of the distractions from his phone. He's been running, wants to get into biking, to do something that's "cathartic," that's physically and mentally healthy. 

"Rarely do we spend so much time in our heads for concerted effort, especially as adults, where you get to be in one activity for more than like 15, 30 minutes."

His effort of living a life well lived — could that be what most of us do, that living itself is the process of figuring it all out, looking at what we do, and asking, why are we doing this?

Miller agrees. "It is the act of living."

Life Well Lived Events:

Oct. 5: Opening event, with a screening of the 2017 documentary "Lives Well Lived."

Oct, 1 to Nov. 5: A community photovoice course from OLLI at WMU, with photographer Jeri Love. Students will be assigned to take photos with their cell phones or digital cameras, centering on the theme of lives well-lived.

Over the fall, WMU's Ethics Center will hold public book clubs centered on three works: "What Universities Owe Democracy," by Ronald J. Daniels; "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain," by George Saunders, and "Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI," by Ethan Mollick. 

Jan. 18: The Kalamazoo Lyceum will hold a community conversation on "A Life Well Lived."

March 15: Sky Bergman, the filmmaker behind "Lives Well Lived" will talk about the origination of the film and questions it raised.

Details and registration for the events can be found here.