Autumn – We have talked about fall and autumn as seasons and what that brings, but what about the autumn of our lives? When does that start? What would the seasons of our lives bring us? The winter, summer, spring and fall of life. In terms of years, lest us say that spring is 0-25, summer is 25-50, fall is 50-75 and winter is 75-100? If so, I am right in the center of the fall of my life. Will the fall of life be anything like the fall season? Will my skin change color and my hair fall out? I think my hair fell out about 25 years ago, sometime in my summer.
Physically, my body is not getting any better and my joints and muscles ache a whole lot more than they used to. Emotionally, I am now more stable, less volatile, more predictable, and less anxious about life. Spiritually, I can see more value in peace, harmony and the various virtues such as love, humility, patience and kindness. I would like to say that I feel more satisfied with myself in these areas and less prone to attack or defend myself against perceived slights. Are these conditions consistent with the autumn of our lives?
Where is the Piagetian scale for what happens to us after 25 years of age? Piaget described the following stages of development:
1.Sensor-motor stage: from birth to age 2 years (children experience the world through movement and senses and learn object permanence)
2.Preoperational stage: from ages 2 to 7 (acquisition of motor skills)
3.Concrete operational stage: from ages 7 to 11 (children begin to think logically about concrete events)
4.Formal operational stage: after age 11 (development of abstract reasoning.
Thats it folks! There are no stages for us as we grow through the summer, autumn and winter of our lives! Here is an opportunity for a new scale. It could even lead to a book on “The Stages of Aging.” Perhaps, the autumn and winter of our lives have similar crisis points that we all share in common in terms of spiritual, emotional, mental and physical development. I suspect there are common stages we will all progress through and that our developmental stages do not end at age 11 or even age 25.
We will all continue to face new challenges and new opportunities for growth.The autumn of our lives will see us cast off some of the old and used leafs and prepare for new growth that will inevitably come. What season of life are you in? What leafs do you need to get rid of? What new growth do you think awaits you?
Aging Capriciously 