Courtesy of JewishSacredAging.com

I am writing this in the midst of an alleged vacation in South Florida. The headline in the Accent section of the Palm Beach Post today highlights the retirement of several Florida-based football coaches and how they will handle this transition. The article quotes several mental health professionals as to the challenge in our society of having your identity totally defined by your work. One mental health professional likened such transitions to a kind of mourning. "The ones who will do well in this next stage of life must mourn the loss of their former life and then embrace the idea of reinventing themselves."

Change is tough, especially when it comes upon us suddenly or if we have never thought that the day will come. Too many of our friends are dealing with this sudden onset of transition because of economic challenges. Yet, from everything we are being told, and as some research validates, baby boomers seem to embrace the idea of reinventing our lives.
 
The new year is often a time when we contemplate what "could be" as we look ahead. Indeed, a message that religious traditions want to convey, as we entertain our resolutions for 2010, is that we would do well to see our lives defined not by what we "do" but by who we are and by how we act. We are reminded that our lives have value and worth just by the fact that we exist. The challenge, of course, is what we decide to do with that life.

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski is a famous and popular scholar in the American Jewish community whose specialty is in dealing with issues of addictions and recovery. His latest book, A Formula for Proper Living (Jewish Lights, 2009), contains an interesting section that speaks to the issue at hand. He asks: "But just what is the function that can give a person enduring value? We live in a culture that worships at the altar of productivity. Whether or not we wish to admit it, we often value people according to how much we feel they contribute to society." (p.85)

Twerski goes on to quote a Rabbinic story whose lesson is that "self-fulfillment comes from a person's doing whatever he or she can do at any particular moment, given that person's condition at that moment." The context of the story touches on one's ability to deal with difficult situations, yet the overall lesson is valuable. The challenge remains for us to create situations and opportunities to make the world a better place. That is why so many boomers have sought to spend increasing amounts of time giving back to their society, their community, their families, etc. We define our own sense of value based on the context of our lives at any point. It is not what we do, it is who we are and how we seek to change the world, and thus or lives, that will allow us to be fulfilled in the coming year.
 
Have a sweet and healthy 2010.