A poetic new book by philosophy professor emeritus John G. Sullivan invites readers to embrace new energies and practices in the second half of their lives, rethinking many of the traditional views of retirement.
Sullivan is Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Philosophy emeritus at Elon, where he taught for 36 years. He is principal designer and a faculty member in an innovative master’s program in transformative leadership at Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, Md., a program for adult learners that applies the lessons of nature and the great wisdom traditions to everyday life.
Sullivan studies and teaches about philosophy, psychology and spirituality. In his new book, “The Spiral of the Seasons: Welcoming the Gifts of Later Life,” Sullivan likens a human lifetime to the four seasons. He overlays the four stages of life from ancient India: In the spring, we are students, in the summer, we are householders, in autumn, we are forest dwellers, and in winter we are invited to become sages.
“Our culture is very much at home in the first half of life. We are at home in doing, in striving, in achieving. The quest is toward fame and fortune,” Sullivan says. He maintains that the transition to the second half of life involves simplifying and returning to a fuller relationship with the natural world.
Sullivan says the tasks of an elder include “(1) keeping the little things little and the big things big, (2) encouraging creativity and (3) blessing the young.”
In meditations and thought-provoking prose, Sullivan writes about the “release from striving,” and “release from identifying with power and prestige and possessions.” As a retired person, Sullivan notes that he has “written the essays from the vantage point of a person interested in becoming an elder, the perspective of one wanting to enter the arc of descent in conscious, peaceful, and joyful ways.”
“I am exploring the opportunities of this phase myself,” Sullivan says. “I am delighted to have the companionship of fellow explorers.”
In reviewing the book, author Sarah Susanka said, “I will be buying a lot of copies of this book, and I hope that it spreads far and wide, to help all of us understand the simple lessons of aging with arms stretched wide in welcome.”
Sullivan’s two previous books are “To Come to Life More Fully” (1991) and “Living Large: Transformative Work at the Intersection of Ethics and Spirituality” (2004). He is an emeritus board member of Second Journey, a non-profit organization based in Chapel Hill, N.C., focused on a new vision of aging and new models of community for the second half of life.
As Elon’s first Distinguished University Professor and Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Philosophy, Sullivan was admired for his wisdom and earned the university’s top award for excellence in teaching. He chaired the Department of Philosophy for 18 years and was a member of the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges reaccreditation self-study steering committees in two different decades. He helped develop the university’s interdisciplinary honors program; was a member of the general studies committee that helped revise Elon’s curriculum in 1994; was the first coordinator of the Asian-Pacific studies program; served on the 1998 presidential search committee; and led Elon’s participation in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
A former Roman Catholic priest, Sullivan was ordained in 1963 and studied in Rome during the Second Vatican Council. He earned a doctorate in ecclesiastical law from the Lateran University in Rome and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“The Spiral of the Seasons: Welcoming the Gifts of Later Life” can be purchased via Amazon.com or via the Second Journey Web site: http://www.secondjourney.org/Spiral.htm
NOTE: Sullivan will give two workshops based on the book on Oct. 2-3 at Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, Md. Details on the workshop can be found at www.tai.edu.
