From Strength to Strength

Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

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Note the subtitle, which hints strongly that I shouldn't have been reading this book. Consulting the actuarial table … has anyone written a book with handy recommendations for the last 16% of life?

Nevertheless, I got the book from Portsmouth Public Library. Why? Because I am an Arthur C. Brooks fan. Back in 2014, I attended the "Freedom Summit", a conservative/libertarian dog-and-pony show put on in Manchester NH by Citizens United and Americans for Prosperity. lots of pols spoke, as did The Donald Trump, but Brooks gave the speech I enjoyed most, with a substance/slogan ratio far over the norm for the day. Since then, I've read a couple of his books: The Conservative Heart and Love Your Enemies. (The latter inspired by a conversation Brooks had at that 2014 conclave, not with me. It was very prescient about today's political hatreds.)

No politics in this book, though. Instead, it's written to address a problem that many people encounter midlife: inevitable physical and cognitive decline, and how that decline can impact one's professional and personal life. Brooks observes that (with some scientific backing) that one's early career is marked by "fluid intelligence". It drives creativity and innovation. But that's what starts declining.

Fortunately, there's "crystallized intelligence" which is maintained better with age. (And "crystallized intelligence" sounds better than "petrified intelligence", doesn't it?) This is the ability to "use a stock of knowledge learned in the past". If you're lucky, this looks a lot like wisdom.

Brooks suggests strongly that you plan to transition your life from one to the other ("strength to strength") as smoothly as possible. Good advice on doing that abounds. Approximately none of which had any applicability to me. (I won't bore you with details of my professional career.) Nevertheless, it was a fun read, because Brooks is a wise and punchy writer. And, well, anecdotes like (p. 9):

There are some famous cases of classical musicians who go on and on, performing into old age. In 1945, double bass player Jane Little joined the Atlanta Symphony at the tender age of sixteen. She retired seventy-one years later at the age of eighty-seven. (Well, she didn't exactly retire: she actually died onstage during a concert while performing "There's No Business Like Show Business.")

And you really should pay attention, no matter your age, when Brooks begins a sentence with "As the Dalai Lama once reminded me,…" (p. 58).

Brooks concludes with "Seven Words to Remember":

Use things.
Love people.
Worship the divine.

Sorry, maybe I should have said "Spoiler Alert" there.


Last Modified 2024-01-17 9:30 AM EDT