I believe life is played on four stages.
The first stage is youth.
Joy, promise, hope, endless opportunity.
We were ripping down the highway in our ’69 Chevy. Hair blowing in the wind. Rock and roll screaming from the radio.
Friends came and went. Every day felt historic.
The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, Kennedy’s death, Armstrong on the moon, civil rights, Woodstock, Watergate.
We were relevant. We mattered. There was a glow about us.
The second stage is responsibility.
Our part-time gigs gave way to a career. Our one-room pad gave way to a house with a fence, backyard and a mortgage. The ’69 Chevy became a hatchback. Our free-spirited times turned into a nursery rhyme and our children and dogs became our lives.
For thirty years or more we are not defined by our interests, passions or desires. Instead we increasingly defined by our responsibilities: job, family, home. The glow is going, going, gone.
The third stage is terror!
We wake up. We’ re fifty, sixty years old. When did that happen? Where did the time go? We no longer have children to raise. We’re no longer working, and if we are we’ re soon not going to be. Now what? Retirement’ ? What is retirement?
What are we going to do that makes us want to get up in the morning and shout love my life!”
Areena is the fourth stage.
We know you’re not likely to volunteer every minute of every day for the rest of your life. But there are many opportunities to do something of value. We believe that Areena provides a structure to give your ENTIRE life real meaning.
So give it a try!
Art Gurwitz
Founder, Areena
Author
