Two halves

I was glad to see Bill's comment after my last post commending a book they profitably used on ageing. I must look it up. When it comes to books on this subject I suppose one of the best known is, Richard Rohr’s ‘Falling Upward - a Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. It's unusually wide in scope and not an easy read. The two halves of life was originally Carl Jung's idea. Rohr warns that the first half of life is the one that we all recognize and sadly some of us never move beyond.  It is the life when we establish our identity.  It's full of trying to make our mark, achieve what he calls a strong 'container' that is all about surviving successfully.  Our career, home, relationships, financial security are vital to who we are. But that's not all that matters.  

Rohr rightly sees that almost all of culture and even religious history has been invested in the creation of this first half of life.  And, of course, we do need to have boundaries, identity, safety and to feel special. To build ego-structures which need to be strong to contain the contents and contradictions later in life. 'You ironically need a very strong ego structure to let go of your ego.'  

And, tragically, if there is no letting go the ego's need for affirmation, certitude and control we can never move into the second half of life.  His spiritual challenge is to discover our true self as we grow in our journey with God. This involves much uncertainty and things out of our control, stumbling over stumbling stones and necessary suffering as we learn who we truly are with him. It's a huge upheaval from the way we have lived earlier.  As he puts it ' a falling off of the very wagon that we constructed. No one would choose such upheaval consciously; we must somehow "fall" into it.'  It's all about learning more of God's grace - discovering what really counts to God in our weaknesses and lack of certainties as we go down in the second half before we go upward in God's love. 'Great love is always a discovery, a revelation, a wonderful surprise, a falling into 'something' much bigger and deeper that is literally beyond us and larger than us. 

There are many demanding ideas in his book. I remain challenged by his assertion that the first half of life is discovering the script and the second half is actually writing it and owning it.  I have used the companion journal to his book and need to mention a couple more things.