Events
Creativity Matters: Composing a Purposeful Retirement
Steve Dahlberg, General Manager, Creative Education Foundation;
Editor, 'ageing as exile?' Blog
December 1, 2004 - 12:00 p.m.
Storrs, Connecticut, USA
School of Family Studies Dean's Lounge, Room 112
Presented by: Center on Aging and Human Development, University of Connecticut
Exiles experience this paradox: "there's no place like home" (which encompasses one's internal values and what's important) and "you can never go home again" (which includes those aspects that one gives up and knows one never wants to go back to). This is also the paradox of living creativity through transitions. This is the paradox of composing a purposeful life. And this is the challenge facing 77 million U.S. baby boomers who are turning 50 at the rate of one every 7.7 seconds: to tap into those fundamental passions that have always been part of oneself, while leaving behind the judgments and blocks that have kept one from living his or her purpose. Beverly Goldberg says that "the issue is not merely how many older people there are but what they choose to do at any given age." What they choose to do and how they choose to do it matters to all of us. Explore the role that creativity, creative thinking and applied imagination can have for individuals as they face the transition from full-time employment to "retirement." And ponder whether author Joseph Jaworski's words ring true: "People are not really afraid of dying ... they're afraid of never having lived, not ever having deeply considered their life's higher purpose, and not ever having stepped into that purpose and at least tried to make a difference in this world."
