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
Bruce Frankel
Language: English
Pages: 44
ISBN: 2:00135152
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
"This wise and inspiring book hands down an important message: Happiness is abundant at any age, and only you can limit your options." -The Boston Globe
In today's world, the question "What should I do with my life?" only scratches the surface. Now, more and more people-from baby boomers retiring from their "first act" to people in their forties and fifties reconsidering their careers in a recovering economy-are finding themselves wondering how to find new stimulation and meaningful work over a lifetime. Bringing together a diverse array of stories, veteran journalist Bruce Frankel brings to life a mesmerizing series of profiles of men and women who discovered a new calling, success, or purpose later in life. Brimming with inspiration and humanity, What Should I Do with the Rest of My Life? celebrates activists, artists, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, and others who found extraordinary ways to experience true fulfillment in the second half of life.
On these pages, readers will meet a civil servant, laid off at age fifty-two, who enrolled in graduate school, earning a Ph.D. in psychology; a former consultant who began a microfinance program in Africa; a longtime contact-lens grinder who has chiseled twelve hundred stone heads on a property now known as the "Easter Island of the Hudson"; and many others who proved that age is a spark-not a barrier. Full of spirit and plenty of chutzpah, this book shows that anything is possible in any stage of life.
well-shined shoes. Filled with excitement, he set off for the publisher’s office. Fadiman greeted Harry warmly and his hopes soared. “He told me how good the book was and how much he liked it. From the way he was talking I was certain he was about to offer me a contract. I could feel myself swelling with pride. Then he said the book would not fit his list. At that moment, it was over for me. I was through. There I was with nothing to show for my work but a pat on the back.” On his way out the
he speaks of the event matter-of-factly, it is not difficult to understand. Even when there was no epidemic, tuberculosis was a constant in Otwock, a picturesque resort town on the Swider River fifteen miles south of Warsaw. With its mild climate, pine tree woods, unique alpine Russian architecture, and proximity to the city, it was the ideal location for the first tuberculosis sanatorium in lowlands Poland, founded there in 1893. By 1933 Otwock had become the first town connected to Warsaw by
when she realized she needed to get home to make dinner for Jim. She hurried from her portable classroom and across the walkway to school’s rear entrance. But the door was locked, and the only way to exit the fenced-in school was through the main building’s front door. She banged on the back door and called out, but no one answered. Everyone else, it seemed, had left for the night. Afraid of the embarrassment she would suffer, but believing she had no choice, she called the police. “I’m a teacher
the mirrored cups, they saw something magical. Their drawings were somehow being transformed into their own vivid versions of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Parents joined their children, exhaling delighted “oohs” and “aahs.” “It was just an entertainment for me and for Nelly,” Myrna said. But the parents saw more than just amusement in Myrna’s creative birthday party activity. “They kept saying, ‘You’ve got a business there. You’ve got to do something with it!’ ” So began Myrna Hoffman’s
saving a drug-infested neighborhood. She had started in her late seventies to work as a legislative aide in the East Bay, and by her eighties was responsible for persuading the National Park Service to rethink its approach to the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, and to present an unvarnished history of the complex race relations on the home front. Throughout her journey, Betty never surrendered her uplifting smile, her keen intellect, or