There is a niche of "movements" out there that appeals to the more privileged and experienced among us. For example, one Marc Freedman has written books such as Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Reinvent Retirement and Revolutionize America which is part of his Civic Ventures program. In a nutshell, he focuses upon directing baby boomers toward post-career lives that are personally fulfilling and civicly minded. One of my favorite parts of this initiative is the logo they use for their Encore Careers website. This site purports to connect "retired" professionals with new work that fills the void presumably left by lucrative yet hollow careers. The use of a semi-colon designates as work-life separating then from now. For some writers, a comma signifies one beat, a semi-colon two beats, and a period represents four beats. 
The appropriate use of a semi-colon indicates that the idea is continuing but their is a slight pause along with a possible change in direction. Thus, the semi-colon is a perfect little squiggle to represent transitions and also a sly wink to those whose college education trained them on the use of this form of punctuation.
I made my weekly trek to campus today including a stop at the library to return one book and check out 9 others, most of which were poetry. And once I'm home again, I received notice that another Interlibrary loan book I requested was in. I'd forgotten the title and when it appeared in an email, it was cryptic enough to startle me: "The third chapter : passion, risk, and adventure in the 25 years after 50." It refers to a book by Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot and I'd watched part of an interview of her by Bill Moyers. The book she wrote was based upon interviews of people in the later part of their lives who were trying to find meaning to what they do. She mentions developmental psychologist Erik Erikson who in the 1950s divided life into chapters and stages.
There's a tale about another developmental psychologist titled "the American question." As Piaget described childhood stages of development and the ages at which changes occurred, there were often Americans who wanted to know how to accelerate that process. Of course, this amused him because he believed his sequence and timing was perfect. I recognize the humorous parallels to my question, but I'll pose it anyway: is the generativity vs. stagnation tension restricted to those in the final third of their lives — or is it possible to encourage and provoke individuals to listen to their internal passions and desires to leave a legacy, to make a lasting mark, to serve others' needs through one's exceptional efforts? I already know the answer to this question given what I witness among those audacious to take on new challenges even though they've earned the leather recliner of tenure. I suppose I'll be looking for evidence to support my beliefs by reading Lawrence-LIghtfoot's book. I do not expect to disagree with what she reports. However, I plan to appropriate her discoveries for my own purposes.
The appropriate use of a semi-colon indicates that the idea is continuing but their is a slight pause along with a possible change in direction. Thus, the semi-colon is a perfect little squiggle to represent transitions and also a sly wink to those whose college education trained them on the use of this form of punctuation.I made my weekly trek to campus today including a stop at the library to return one book and check out 9 others, most of which were poetry. And once I'm home again, I received notice that another Interlibrary loan book I requested was in. I'd forgotten the title and when it appeared in an email, it was cryptic enough to startle me: "The third chapter : passion, risk, and adventure in the 25 years after 50." It refers to a book by Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot and I'd watched part of an interview of her by Bill Moyers. The book she wrote was based upon interviews of people in the later part of their lives who were trying to find meaning to what they do. She mentions developmental psychologist Erik Erikson who in the 1950s divided life into chapters and stages.
Each one of these stages is characterized by a crisis, a crisis of whether we're going to move forward, progress, or whether we're going to move back, regress. So, it is this tension always, at each of our developmental stages, between progression and regression. And this third stage is a crisis between what he calls "generativity" and stagnation. Sounds very dramatic. Generativity, having to do with using your energies to serve, to teach, to mentor, to express through art, to innovate, to give something to society, right? To leave a legacy. And stagnation, meaning, "I'm going to stay right here, and make my mark, continue to make my mark, in an individual pursuit."What I understand is her belief that many people reach a certain age and then decide they ought to be making a difference in the lives of others. What I would respectfully dispute is whether this is necessarily restricted to those in the penultimate chapter of their lives. I suspect that this may be a common message for many people but there are a lot who, because they are caught up in careers or other distraction, may not hear until their worries have subsided. The reasons I requested this book (as a prelude to an actual purchase) is to see whether she uncover phenomena similar to what many seem to acquire from Crossroads.
There's a tale about another developmental psychologist titled "the American question." As Piaget described childhood stages of development and the ages at which changes occurred, there were often Americans who wanted to know how to accelerate that process. Of course, this amused him because he believed his sequence and timing was perfect. I recognize the humorous parallels to my question, but I'll pose it anyway: is the generativity vs. stagnation tension restricted to those in the final third of their lives — or is it possible to encourage and provoke individuals to listen to their internal passions and desires to leave a legacy, to make a lasting mark, to serve others' needs through one's exceptional efforts? I already know the answer to this question given what I witness among those audacious to take on new challenges even though they've earned the leather recliner of tenure. I suppose I'll be looking for evidence to support my beliefs by reading Lawrence-LIghtfoot's book. I do not expect to disagree with what she reports. However, I plan to appropriate her discoveries for my own purposes.
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