Midlife Mastery Journal

It seems — to the best of my ability to understand the answer — that the universe and all it contains is nothing but a mega-University that’s only function is to educate Consciousness (in all its known and unknown iterations) in just two interrelated subjects: what I’m calling the Two Great Lessons of Life. I won’t keep you hanging there in anticipation. The First Great Lesson of Life comes down to this: learning how to love. The Second Great Lesson of Life is its complement: learning how to let go. That’s it. That’s all there is. Once you’ve mastered both subjects, you’re ready to graduate. If it were only that easy.

Rather than focus on our ultimate destiny, leaving this world behind, our culture has chosen to replace a morbid fascination with death with a morbid fascination with rigidity and changelessness. Our obsession with youth and nostalgia for an imagined halcyon age in times gone by permeates not only our decision-making processes, but also the meaning we give to the world.

Whether you’re 15 or 50, you’ve got some growing to do. Yet most people who are reading these words are unaware that there exists a huge obstacle to your growth that you’re just taking for granted. In fact, if you’re like most people, you probably think that this major obstacle to growth belongs there: it seems like that’s the way things are supposed to be.

Midlife offers you the opportunity to rediscover and, once again, embrace your uniqueness. While you’ve been spending your life striving to identify yourself with your cultural and social role, midlife whispers in your ear that may no longer be necessary.

It’s time that 21st Century men get over their cultural biases and start adopting an attitude that’s less arrogant, self-reliant and shame-based, and adopt a healthier attitude that’s more personally vulnerable and more open to others’ experiences and viewpoints.