Creative Aging: Rethinking Retirement and Non-Retirement in a Changing World

Creative Aging approaches pre-retirement and retirement as spiritual opportunities to evolve into one’s fullness for sharing gifts with others and creating a rewarding life. Examples are Christian-based, but the author Margery Zoet Bankson does not proselytize and is spiritual, rather than religiously dogmatic, making this work accessible for people with varying beliefs. Bankson elaborates on four pre-retirement steps that inform moving into the next phase of life with grace, self-confidence and authenticity: release (letting go of one’s former vocational image), resistance (feeling stuck and lost), reclaiming (remembering previous and buried skills, talents and gifts), and revelation (creating a vision for the future). This show more critical internal work validates the retiree as valuable and viable to reach the “crossing point” that leads into generativity, defined as “…recognizing our connection with the wider world and living into that knowing” (p.11). Generativity facilitates taking risk (with hope) and relating (joining or developing new structures for meaningful work), for being a spiritual being in one’s community. This is an essential read for the retiree, or soon to be, who yearns for transformation and connection to others. A short, quality bibliography suggests further reading. I read this library book, and will buy my own to join my small group of rereads. show less

Sure sign of a book I got something out of is the number of places I highlighted in it. And I highlighted a lot in this. Will need to come back someday and review the highlights. The parts on generativity and creativity were good.