I have been married to the woman of my dreams for almost 40 years; have two children and two grandchildren. We are building a second home on a lakefront about an hour from the school with the plan that I will lecture for three days and spend four days per week at the lake. Certainly, the school and tangible income has allowed us to be comfortable and educate our children, as well as put away a bit for the future. However, when I reflect, what I really find as "meaning" is the way in which, in some small manner, we have helped transform the lives of so many students who are now successful businessmen and women, who have families, and who are continuing with some of the ethical and moral principles engrained at school. The future, for my wife and I, is bright, and we are confident that a part of us remains inside our children, passed on to the grandchildren, and therefore preserving a paradigm in which the experiences of the past build together to form a new, and ever evolving, future. I must admit that I disagree with Erikson, not in principle, but in practice. He sees an individual my age in upper middle adulthood, shortly away from either wisdom or despair (Wilder, 2003). In the contemporary world, though, I would respectfully disagree. The age of 60 is certainly an adult role, certainly one has four decades or so of solid...
My continual involvement, in fact, with young people helps me stay in touch and in-tune, and hopefully the wisdom I impart can help them through some of life's challenges. All in all -- I remain optimistic about the future. I have certainly been involved in enough trends the past decades to know that what rises also falls, and the reverse. Life is what we make it -- I choose to believe the cup is always half-full, and if not, it is time to put more liquid into the pot!
WORKS CITED and CONSULTED
Bittarello, M. (2008). "Re-Crafting the Past: The Complex Relationship Between Myth and Ritual." Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies 10.2 (2008): 214+.
Cosgrove, M. (2006). Foundations of Christian Thought. Kregel.
Jordan, P. (2001). Neanderthal: Neanderthal Man and the Story of Human Origins. The History Press.
O'Neill, M. And C. Mahoney, eds. (2007). Romantic Poetry: An Annotated Anthology,
Wiley-Blackwell.
Sartre, J. (2009). The Sartre Forum. Cited in: http://www.sartre.org/
Wilder, J. (2003). "The Theoretical Basis for the Life Model." Lifemodel.org. Cited in:
http://www.lifemodel.org/download/Model%20Building%20Appendix.pdf
