Are there new treasures to seek in the evening of life?
"We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening and what in the morning was true, at evening will have become a lie."
Although I was familiar with this quote from psychologist Carl Jung, I had no idea that he wrote extensively on the second half of life, the evening, as he puts it. I came across a website, Carl Jung Depth Psychology, with an anthology of Jung's writing about aging. It is a treasure chest of Jung's thoughts on the subject.
Jung adamantly stated that we are wholly unprepared for our second half of life. We spend years in our youth preparing for our middle years. We are instructed through school and advanced degrees to succeed in our careers, marriage, and child-rearing.
Our parents and teachers are bent on educating us to prepare for success.
Jung says, "Are there perhaps colleges for forty-year-olds which prepare them for their coming life and its demands as the ordinary colleges introduce our young people to a knowledge of the world?
"No, thoroughly unprepared, we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false assumption that our truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto."
With today's advanced life span, I'm sure he would agree that his imaginary college for adults should be designed for 50-year-olds. But either way, it does not exist but with a few exceptions like Chip Conley's Modern Elder Academy.
The question is, are there new treasures to seek in older age? Have we given any thought to the idea that the evening of life takes different skills and a different understanding of our place in the world?
When we maintain our childish ego into the evening of life, we will suffer from it. Specifically, Jung says we will suffer damage to our souls.
The very fact that humans live to be 70 or 80 years old must mean longevity has meaning for our species. The afternoon and evening of life must have meaning in themselves and not, as he says, "a merely pitiful appendage to life's morning."
It makes no sense that in the evening of life we desire more of what we achieved in the afternoon of life - more money, more conquests. It is up to us to examine our own lives to unveil the treasure we hold.
Socrates famously said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Yet, unfortunately, we do not have the tools readily available to instruct us in this quest. In a perfect world, there would be formal education offered to us to negotiate this time in life. But, for now, it is up to us to seek wise Elders and mentors to show us the way!
Find Connie’s book, “Daily Cures: Wisdom for Healthy Aging,” at www.justnowoldenough.com.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Aging full of new opportunities
