Reverend Phillip Jackson shared his take on the two halves of life with attendees in Miller Forum, Moyer Hall at 7:00 p.m. on Oct. 11.
Jackson, the vicar of Trinity Church Wall Street in Manhattan and an Episcopalian of 25 years and the presidential lecturer back and forth on stage, showing comfort at the podium. Jackson renamed the talk he was going to give The Two Halves of Life, in which he described just that. According to Jackson, the first half is an upward swing in which the ego asks, “Who do I want to be?” while the soul sits quiet in the corner. At the age of 40-60, something happens – a failure, a loss or suffering – the death of a loved one, a divorce, loss of a job. This begins what Jackson calls the second stage of life.
After describing this, Jackson then turned to the audience.
“Any of that happen to anybody here?” he asked.
Faculty, staff, and administrators in the audience raised their hands; students didn’t.
“This is an almost universal experience … that no one talks about,” said Jackson. “We don’t talk about it, and we don’t tell our young people that this is part of what happens in life.”
According to Jackson, successfully handling the second half of life creates wisdom, which he said was undervalued in American culture. Insead, Jackson continued, people try to circle back to the first stage of life.
After his lecture, Jackson took questions from the audience, where attendees asked what the soul looked like, what it needed to nourish it and how the two halves of life applied to the Baby Boomer generations. Jackson suggested to feed your soul with cooking, conversations, literature and a good thought-provoking movie.
Towards the end, one student asked for Jackson’s advice to students in the first half of life.
His advice: to build those relationships, enjoy these four years and read while you can.
“When you get out of school and graduate school, it gets harder and harder to find the discipline to read good things. So [your professors] are putting in front of you really good stuff,” said Jackson. “Read it, read it, read it.”
Background image courtesy of Muhlenberg College Public Relations.
