One of my favorite Jewish texts is found in a section of the Mishna - a code of Jewish law that dates to about 200 c.e. - called Avot. Avot means “ancestors.” It’s filled with short statements of advice, ethics, and wisdom. Sounds like a perfect handbook for those seeking modern elderhood, doesn’t it (but then, I’m a rabbi so I’m drawn to these texts of wisdom)?

The Potential Inter-Generational Gift of MEA If you’re at the older end of your “second adulthood,” don’t rule out the experience of MEA. It may seem far-fetched to think about MEA as an intergenerational experience. That wasn’t my intent, but it ended up being an important part of the experience for me. In reflection, intergenerational connections have been an important part of my entire life.

“Midlife chrysalis” is a term we enjoy at MEA and it’s one I unleashed to the world at the TED conference this week in Vancouver. We’ll share the video of the speech when it’s available.

This image above may look like the scary part of a kidnapper’s ransom note. In reality, it’s the MEA logo (thanks, Michael Martin), reconfigured to spell a word that is deeply part of the MEA lexicon. Special shout out and thanks to our guest faculty member, Dr. Dacher Keltner, whose new book “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life” has become a foundational part of our curriculum.

Imagine that Steven Spielberg walks up to you and says, “I want to capture your life story as a means of providing an inspiring meditation to people all over the world.” Implausible, right? Scary, possibly?

Dr. Bill Thomas has been a thought partner of mine since before I wrote “Wisdom@Work.” For those who know his story, he was appointed the medical director of a nursing home in upstate New York more than 30 years ago, which he described as “a repository for old people whose minds and bodies seemed dull and dispirited.”

I love wordplay. I'm particularly fascinated by words that have a relationship with each other if you just switch two letters. For example, if you switch the "l" and "t" in "latent," it becomes "talent." Just saying the phrase "latent talent" sounds like a poem.

I never saw this coming. I see myself in the mirror and think, “Good God man…you are dying.”

There is no shortage of metaphors to describe midlife, but none have resonated with me quite as profoundly as Leslie Bartlett’s literal and metaphorical ‘new lens on life.’

Last year, I wrote a blog post, “Longevity is Becoming Shortevity.” It was 1,000 words and had lots of stats pointing to the steep decline in longevity in the U.S. However, a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words, as the graph below shows. Take a second look, and you’ll see how one of the wealthiest countries in the world (and the one that spends the most per capita on health care costs) has a full-blown system failure with longevity in freefall, and all at a time when the rest of the world is seeing a post-pandemic recovery.