Creative Aging Trumps the Midlife Crisis

The Boston Globe reports that in the past year, three events have converged in the life of Gary Hofstetter. He turned 50. He spent a week in Los Angeles at the Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp, where he jammed with Roger Daltrey of the Who. And he launched his pursuit of a PhD at Boston College as the first step toward his goal of eventually teaching or working as an administrator in special-needs programs at a university. Hofstetter, the Globe suggests, is hardly unique. He’s a living example of what the paper calls “creative aging,” a practice that can mean everything from adopting a healthier lifestyle to adopting a child while in your 50s, from exploring spirituality and philosophy in depth to finally buckling down to write that novel you’ve been thinking about for years. It’s fun piece, pegged appropriately, to the 40th birthday of the concept of midlife crisis. Read more and rock on.