Interview With Gail Sheehy: ‘More Life Passages After 50′ (VIDEO)
If you expect to ride your mid-life on cruise control, think again. As the bestselling author of books focused on life’s stages, Gail Sheehy points out that men and women experience more life chapters after age 50 than they do in the first half of their lives.
“We go through more passages after fifty than we do in our first adulthood,” Gail shared with genConnect.com at The Aspen Ideas Festival this summer.
“Passages” was really about a new concept. The idea that, as adults, we continue to go through stages and have to master tasks and go through periods of disequilibrium where it’s not about the choices we made that were wrong, but we’re moving into another phase of life. We already wrapped up some tasks and we want to be more.
Gail first brought the concept of life chapters to dinner-table conversations with the release of the 1976 book Passages. In her latest book Passages in Caregiving: Turning Chaos into Confidence, Gail shares her 17-year journey caring for her terminally ill husband Clay Felker – and the waves that came with it of struggles, victories, confusions, and tremendous love.
In a multi-ranging interview on genConnect TV, Gail speaks about life passages, her last date with her husband and connecting with the fifty million adults who are current caregivers. Watch:
Stay tuned for more video clips from our interview with Gail Sheehy.
Edited Transcript:
I wrote Passages in Caregiving because I went through the chaos of caregiving off and on for seventeen years taking care of my husband, Clay Felker, who had cancer four different times. I didn’t know anything; I was blind, I wasn’t trained for it, I wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t know how to pay for it, and I figured not many other people do either and there are fifty-million adults taking care of other adults that used to be independent. While I told my story throughout the book in kind of a novelistic form, and the stories of lots of other people in different situations, taking care of moms and dads who is wanting to take care of mom who is taking care of dad but is killing mom. Then I wanted to put in real concrete “what do you do” at each phase of this long journey because it may go on for years or even decades. The writing of this book was cathartic in that I relived and understood the path that I had been on for seventeen years and I appreciated so much more. The wonderful long reprieves we had during and between his illnesses. We had been victorious over this monster called cancer, so we really lived in those five– six year reprieves and I wanted to tell other people that you can do that. Today, diseases that were always considered to be death sentences are very often recurring, remitting, they drop off, they may never come back; so, live every moment that you have.
A couple of nights before my husband died, he knew he only had about a week left and I asked him if he wanted to do something wonderful. He played jazz as a kid, a jazz drum, and I went to the computer and I found out that our favorite club, Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club in Lincoln Center, had a show that night. It was just a jazz quintet, and I asked Clay “would you like to go?”. “Yes.” He pulled all the energy he had left and went to his wardrobe and pulled out a nice jacket, a shirt, and a cap to hide his bald hair and he let me put tinted sunscreen on his face to give him some color; he look pretty good, he looked normal. We went out and got to the concert on time. The man who was playing was his age and was playing his own composition called “Life Is What you Make It,” so Clay was just filled with the music and beating on the table drumming to the music. We were there for two hours; it was the best two hours of our lives together.
“Passages” was really about a new concept. The idea that, as adults, we continue to go through stages and have to master tasks and go through periods of disequilibrium where it’s not about the choices we made that were wrong, but we’re moving into another phase of life. We already wrapped up some tasks and we want to be more. Basically, we always want to be more, and later we want to give back more. It’s still relevant today and people tell me they constantly go back to it to see: “What did I do at thirty – at cash thirty? Where did I make my midlife passage? Where did I go off track?”. The most important thing is when I wrote that book I was in my thirties and so I stopped parsing the stages of adult development at fifty because I thought what happens after fifty that could be interesting. In fact, I now know we go through more passages after fifty than we do in our first adulthood.
Related topics:
Do You Have a Bucket List? (Poll)
Category: 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival, Loss & Grieving, Relationships, Videos
Loading ...
Secured by
[...] Interview With Gail Sheehy: ‘More Life Passages After 50′ [...]
[...] Interview With Gail Sheehy: ‘More Life Passages After 50′ (Video) [...]
will smith divorce…
[...]practice in the place of game[...]…
Toplinksq…
Fantastic blog post, saw on…
Looking around…
While I was surfing today I saw a excellent article concerning…
Yahoo results…
While searching amazon I discovered this article in the results and I didn’t think it fit…
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Cool sites…
[...]we came across a nice page that you might be interested in. Take a look if you want[...]……
Visitor recommendations…
[...]one of our visitors recently recommended the following website[...]……
Wikia…
Wika linked to this site…
Websites worth visiting…
[...]here are few links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……
Cool sites…
[...]I came across a nice site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……
Sites we Like……
[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……
Check this out…
[...] that is the end of this article. Here you’ll find some sites that we think you’ll appreciate, just click the links over[...]……
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related articles to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Awesome website…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……
Blogs ou should be reading…
[...]Here is a nice artice You Might Find useful that we Encourage You to visit[...]……
Great website…
[...]we like to honor many other articles, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some of them worthed to try[...]……
Its hard to find good help…
I am regularly saying that its difficult to get good help, but here is…
Dreary Day…
It was a dreary day here yesterday, so I just took to piddeling around on the internet and realized…
Sources…
[...]check below, are some totally unrelated websites to ours, however, they are most trustworthy sources that we use[...]……
Related……
[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……
Very nice creation site internet on this blog, thank you for your article is really good….
creation site internet…
futureshape fat burner…
You can definitely see your enthusiasm in the paintings you write. The arena hopes for more passionate writers like you who aren’t afraid to mention how they believe. Always go after your heart. “The point of quotations is that one can use another’s…
Nice…
I like this web site very much, Its a real nice position to read and find info ….
Trackback Priority…
I will immediately snatch your rss as I can’t in finding your email subscription hyperlink or newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly let me recognize so that I may subscribe. Thanks….
Trackback Priority…
I just couldn’t depart your web site prior to suggesting that I extremely loved the standard info a person provide on your visitors? Is gonna be back continuously in order to inspect new posts….
Link Building Pakistan…
I love reading an article that will make people think. Also, thank you for allowing me to comment!…
Trackback Priority…
I savor, lead to I found just what I was having a look for. You’ve ended my four day lengthy hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye…
Top Wedding Dress Style – Trends & Tips For Looking Good…
Find your dream wedding dress! Practical Style & tips for looking good , what’s hot and what will make you look good on your wedding day.from topweddingdress.com…
4bigtitcamera…
Great blog here! Also your site so much up fast! How long have you been running a blog for? you make blogging glance easy. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made good content material…
Yahoo News…
When checking out Yahoo News yesterday I noticed this…
Advice…
I’m a teenager and I heard that you can actually get paid for things like this. I’m experienced with computers and have good literature skills and I’m sure I can write successful blogs/articles.. . On a different (sort of) topic, would I be able to …
Great read…
Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research on this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such wonderful information being share…
BUY STRATTERA ONLINE…
I have realized that online degree is getting common because accomplishing your degree online has developed into a popular selection for many people. A large number of people have certainly not had a possibility to attend a regular college or universit…
How To make Money Online…
I saw this really good post today….
Trackback…
Thing is, I’ve just migrated to WordPress. However, I have a number of people who have subscribed to my feeds from my blogger blog. What should I do to ensure that they now receive updates from my WordPress blog? . . FYI, I have a feedburner account…..
Just reading here…
It is in reality a nice and helpful piece of information. I am glad that you simply shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing….
Great…
[...]here are some hyperlinks to web sites that we link to simply because we feel they may be really worth visiting[...]…
Advice…
I’m a teenager and I heard that you can actually get paid for things like this. I’m experienced with computers and have good literature skills and I’m sure I can write successful blogs/articles.. . On a different (sort of) topic, would I be able to …
ACETAMINOPHEN…
Nice post. I be taught one thing more challenging on completely different blogs everyday. It’ll all the time be stimulating to read content material from other writers and practice a bit one thing from their store. I’d want to make use of some with th…
Lemonade Diet…
Very interesting topic , thankyou for putting up. “Integrate what you believe into every single area of your life.” by Meryl Streep….
Blogs…
Hi,. I have a question that I hope will have a simple answer. I have a wordpress blog and right now my side navigation menu is on the right side. I would like for the menu to be on the left side. Can someone please tell me how I would go about doing th…
“etishes…
How To Get Better Penetration During Sex Sex Advice For Women – 10 Hot Easy Tips To Achieve Perfect Sexual Health!”…
Great…
[...]just beneath, are a lot of totally not related sites to ours, even so, they are certainly really worth going over[...]…
{We are|We’re} {a group|a gaggle|a bunch} of volunteers and {starting|opening} {a new|a brand new} scheme in our community. Your {site|web site|website} {provided|offered} us with {helpful|useful|valuable} {information|info} to {paintings|work} on. …
CHAT…
{One other thing|Yet another thing to mention|One more thing to say|One other thing to point out|Also a thing to mention} is that an CHAT business administration {course|program|training course|study course|training|diploma} is designed for {students…
CHAT…
The article…
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch! “High living and high thinking are poles apart.” by B. J. Gup…