A Good Life After Mid-Life

Three lines from T. S. Eliot's poem "Chorus from 'The Rock'" sum up my fears about myself and my generation.

And the wind shall say: “Here were decent godless people:
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls.” 

The first of seventy-seven million (that’s 77,000,000!) of us—the baby-boomers—have begun to retire. That’s about 10,000 every day and maybe more than that as the economic downturn turns long-term job searchers into reluctant retirees.

The wealth of experience, wisdom, and energy this represents is beyond calculating. And it would be a tragedy to squander it in a retirement orgy of decent and respectable godlessness, road trips, and lost golf balls.

Or at least I want more than that out of whatever years I have left and I don't think I'm alone. There are, I believe, ways to live a good life after mid-life marked by peace, contentment, fruitfulness, and joy. And exploring them is by itself half the adventure.

So beginning with some journal entries, Pears, Grapes, & Dates: A Good Life After Mid-Life began to take shape exploring the attitudes needed for that kind of life and how to set those attitudes.

Just think of the possibilities