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Mentors are needed for those adults making the transition into a new life after completing their work careers. When I was getting ready to quit teaching I wanted to talk about aging with those who had traveled this path ahead of me. No one wanted to talk about growing older. Old, of course, was a taboo word. “It’s too frightening to talk about,” said one. “Aging is a tough proposition,” came from another. No one invited me to grow old along with them.
When I turned to books on aging and retirement, I found that many of them had been written by young professionals who had all kinds of theoretical action plans for successful aging. They suggested how to make finances last, how to look after health, how to find the best housing and how to untangle legal affairs. Too few were written by people who knew that suddenly to find you are not immune to arthritis or other ills is like a slap in the face, that gray hair equals incompetence in the minds of some people, that the lions of the later years crouch close to your door if you are not watchful. I wanted to know where my older friends found grace and spiritual strength for living. I have since found that other elders are looking for spiritual mentors as they enter the afternoon of life.
—from Bridging the Generations, Herald Press, 2001.
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