Carl Jung

Being part of the Great Books Discussion Group here in Jackson Hole forces - or should I say, encourages - me to read things I'd otherwise avoid. Often the selections are a pleasant surprise.

This week I struggled with an excerpt from Carl Jung's "The Stages of Life" until I came across some great quotes about middle and old age.

"... We wholly overlook the essential fact that the achievements which society rewards are won at the cost of a diminution of personality. Many - far too many - aspects of life which should also have been experienced lie in the lumberoom among dusty memories. Sometimes, even, they are glowing coals under gray ashes.

... Thoroughly unprepared we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning - for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning is true will at evening have become a lie."