The priest and Franciscan Monk Richard Rohr published a book called ‘Falling Upward: A spirituality for the two halves of life’.

In it he speaks of something long defined by philosophers and more recently by such psychologists as Carl Jung, as the first and second halves of life.

In the first half of life, we are naturally and rightly preoccupied with establishing our identities – climbing, achieving and performing. 

We all try to do what seems like the task that life first hands us: establishing an identity, a home, a job, relationships, friends, community, security, and building, both a foundation and a ‘container’ for our lives.

But too many of us stop there. As Bill Plotkin, a psychologist, and wilderness guide once observed, many of us learn to do our ‘survival dance’ but we never get to do our ‘sacred dance’. How sad that is.

If we as a society were wise, we would do well to remember the enormous contribution that the oldest among us can make to our community life.

In the story of Simeon and Anna, we hear how they came into their own in old age. Their testimony was revolutionary, shocking to conventional minds and systems.

For the job of a prophet is to challenge, to test the fads and fashions of today against a measuring rod of long years and experience.

Something, if they chose to, that the older among us could do in our present age……