The 3rd period
Living in Canada it is impossible to avoid hearing about hockey, getting involved in hockey .. and that is a good thing. It is certainly the most interesting spectator sport out there.
Hockey terminology is used a lot and recently an example occurred to me as I contemplated stages in life as one is apt to after turning 50.
So the way I look at it is that I have entered the 3rd period of this particular game given that a life expectancy of 75 years is not unreasonable for a healthy, non-smoking male living in North America.
In looking at it this way, the 1st period was all about education. Getting the most out of the process of learning and developing the mind to then be able to maximize the value of that intellect. Masters Degree was at 24 and if one considers the first year at Citibank as training, than that fits rather neatly into the metaphor.
The 2nd period was all about family and that includes professional achievement and economic success which were in the function of providing for the family. It was much more full and complex than the 1st period and the way one measures success is money in the bank and whether the kids are drug addicts or productive members of the society.
With Demi leaving for college mere months before my 50th, that period of family life has concluded. The family continues but in other ways as the kids are not kids any more even on the most fundamental level of feeding them - it is not all about how to provide for the family any more.
So then what will the 3rd period be about or what should it be about? There is one more gig ahead of me, probably the most enjoyable one of all which is to be a grandfather and that is truly going to be awesome and I have some big shoes to fill to be as good a Deda as Deda was.
But what else is an interesting and pleasing question as it's full of possibilities (although the often repeated "threat" that I will start playing golf at age 50 with the goal to make it onto the Senior Tour is not likely to become reality).
Oh yes, and for the final cliche - the game could always go into overtime......
Hockey terminology is used a lot and recently an example occurred to me as I contemplated stages in life as one is apt to after turning 50.
So the way I look at it is that I have entered the 3rd period of this particular game given that a life expectancy of 75 years is not unreasonable for a healthy, non-smoking male living in North America.
In looking at it this way, the 1st period was all about education. Getting the most out of the process of learning and developing the mind to then be able to maximize the value of that intellect. Masters Degree was at 24 and if one considers the first year at Citibank as training, than that fits rather neatly into the metaphor.
The 2nd period was all about family and that includes professional achievement and economic success which were in the function of providing for the family. It was much more full and complex than the 1st period and the way one measures success is money in the bank and whether the kids are drug addicts or productive members of the society.
With Demi leaving for college mere months before my 50th, that period of family life has concluded. The family continues but in other ways as the kids are not kids any more even on the most fundamental level of feeding them - it is not all about how to provide for the family any more.
So then what will the 3rd period be about or what should it be about? There is one more gig ahead of me, probably the most enjoyable one of all which is to be a grandfather and that is truly going to be awesome and I have some big shoes to fill to be as good a Deda as Deda was.
But what else is an interesting and pleasing question as it's full of possibilities (although the often repeated "threat" that I will start playing golf at age 50 with the goal to make it onto the Senior Tour is not likely to become reality).
Oh yes, and for the final cliche - the game could always go into overtime......
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