Dialogic Magazine

By: Marsha Trent On: November 25, 2010

The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50

by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (December 22, 2009)

For those of us over the age of 60 who are still working, even though the thrill is gone and the returns grow more limited with each passing year, reading The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50 by renowned sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot might seem like useless escapism. After all, the book is about men and women in their 50s, 60s and 70s who have stepped off the familiar track to blaze new individual trails perfectly suited to their own desires and dreams. Lawrence-Lightfoot interviewed more than 40 individuals who are what she likes to call “new learners,” — a former business executive who becomes a part-time international relief worker, a corporate lawyer who heads off to divinity school, a mechanical engineer who becomes an artist.

It is true the book deals with a small slice of the population: educated, healthy people without too many financial worries. About all this population and I have in common seems to be age, which leads me to ask myself why I found value in reading this book and why I think others might also find value in reading it. Actually, this book isn’t just for people in the “third chapter” of their lives, but also for those who will be falling into step behind them someday soon. If you are 30 or 40 years old now, 50 or 60 or 70 is not so far away, no matter how different you see yourself as being today. Right now, about a quarter of the U. S. population between the ages of 50 and 75 are living longer and healthier and those numbers are likely to increase as younger generations age.

Lawrence-Lightfoot makes the point that notions of aging and retirement have changed and are likely to continue to evolve along the new directions being taken now. Turns out that people in the “third chapter,” do seem to share some common patterns that include an unwillingness to simply fade away. This group is eager to learn new ways and to add value to society.  The trend seems to be a shift in priorities toward making the world a better place through activity and new challenges.

It’s not true that all of the “new learners” interviewed by Lawrence-Lightfoot are out to change the world so much as they have the freedom and the resources to explore new ideas, risk new adventures, acquire new skills, share new realities. Ultimately, though it does seem that if those of us who are now in the “third chapter” change the way we age and the way we live with aging; the shared desire to learn new ways creates changes that will benefit future generations.

As I read the stories of these “third chapter” learners, I felt inspired to create my own “third chapter” reality even though it would have limits and challenges not addressed by the book. I think that unwillingness to fall back on the retirement couch and nap through the next decade or two is certainly shared by the generation now in their 50s, 60s and 70s regardless of their circumstances.

The thought that the “new learners” stories resonate with me despite the differences between my circumstances and those of the storytellers led me to further contemplate why I find reading the book worthwhile even if its lessons relate only marginally to my life and likely to the lives of people like me. The conclusion I came to is; the book sets the course for a sequel.

Missing in this book, but certainly worthy of a sociologist of Lawrence-Lightfoot’s stature is a study of how social structures, interactions and institutions can evolve to accommodate this and the coming generations of people living through the third chapter. Inherent in such a study could be a useful multi-generational, multi-cultural discussion that addresses and ultimately alters the image of aging forever and for the better. What a better book that could be, because it could emphasize the path rather than the individual divergences. The road ends the same way for all of us, as a society; perhaps we need to learn how to make it a more meaningful journey for each of us.

Tags: aging, book reviews, society and culture