Beltane Planting Moon
As I fed the dogs this morning, the upcoming Woolly retreat came into focus and I thought about the third phase. For some reason coming of age novels popped into mind. These novels, ever since the novel’s appearance, have been perennial favorites: Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird.
And why? Because the transition from the (relative) innocence of childhood to young adult is fraught with emotionally difficult moments, surprising new insights and ushers out into a time with the landscape renewed and the horizon pleasingly far away.
Tying it loosely to the first phase, second phase, third phase notion, coming of age novels are about the transition from learner to doer, from the first phase of education to the second phase of adult life and career.
Working life novels also abound. Arrowsmith. Pale King by David Wallace. Any of the many novels of academia. Most mysteries and thrillers are set in the world of work. Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities. These novels are not as universal in their appeal and I imagine the fragmentation of life’s paths after coming of age accounts for that. We’re not all interested in doctors, or masters of the universe, or professors, but; we are all interested in what it feels like to grow up because it’s a common experience.
So. What of novels about the third phase? Novels about living life with neither the end of education nor the end of work as the terminus, but about living life with The Terminus as the end. Scrolling through some lists I did find some interesting works cited: King Lear, Job, Doctor Faustus, A Christmas Carol. All fine pieces.
But. If we’re right about the third phase as a new phase of life equivalent to the other two, then simply growing old and dying is not enough as a plot line. No, what I would like to see are coming of old novels. Novels about making the startling transition from the adulthood of the second phase to the adulthood of the third phase. We need these novels, poems, movies, music to help us navigate new, uncharted waters.
