Bruce Frankel, author of What Should I Do With the Rest of My Life: True Stories of Finding Success, Passion, and New Meaning in the Second Half of Life, gathered stories of people that will amaze you. Each one is delicious to read about. There is Thomas Dwyer, a 70-something man who had never danced, who joined a dance troupe after leaving his career as a US intelligence officer overseas."He extends lanky, marionette-like arms and moves his 127 pound frame on flamingo-thin legs. ... A whispering curiosity spreads through the audience as the usual assumptions about what an elderly body can do clash with his sinewy defiance of them."
Consider Alidra Solday who decided to document the story of Doris Haddock, a 90-year old woman who walked across the US to call attention to the need for campaign finance reform. A newbie to being a documentarian, Solday was squelched by an influential person on Haddock's team, but she persisted until she could complete the journey. Her documentary won awards and was aired on PBS all over the country.
I offered to read the book to review for this blog,thinking "Oh, another book about the 2nd half of life. Ho-hum" Was I wrong! Frankel, a journalist and obviously a man who loves meeting people and telling their stories, wrote a compelling book about wonderful people. I'd love to meet every one of them.
Each chapter is a story of an individual who was not about to relinquish their curiosity, their vitality, their quest for meaning, just because she or he was "older." No, each one went on to establish new careers, new projects, new businesses and all kinds of adventures just because they wanted to. And each adventure took hard work, dedication, perseverance. None of these people are dabblers. They're all smitten with what they're doing and nothing will get in their way.
Author Frankel has transformed himself a few times as well. He was once a psychiatric aide, then became a prize-winning investigative reporter for USA Today and later for People Magazine before going back to school to get an MFA to get credentials to write and publish poetry. I guess he's one of these people who finds success through doing what he's passionate about and finds meaningful.
This is a good read... almost a page-turner. And bound to give you inspiration and role models for going into your 3rd and even 4th Age.
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