Have you ever wondered what your calling is?
Not long ago, I began a speech by asking how many members of my middle-aged audience still didn't know what they wanted to be when they grew up. After a few giggles, more than a quarter of the people in the room raised a hand.
Some might argue that if you haven't found a calling by the time you're in midlife, chances are you won't. Meg Wolitzer, author of The Ten-Year Nap, goes even further. In a New York Times interview, she once declared: The notion that everyone has a calling, that everyone has a talent, that everyone has a passion, isn't true.
I'm not so sure about that. But even if she's right, before you put yourself in the I don't have a calling category, consider Adele Lerner (pictured here). At age 60, her husband gave her a paint-by-the numbers set At 83, she earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts. At 101, she produced her first art show. Now 103, she still paints, but she's also become computer savvy. She Skypes daily, talking to her daughter in California, and watches Sabbath services on the web.
Or take the late Mimi Weddell, who began her acting career at age 65. Over the next 25-plus years, she appeared in commercials, television shows, and such films as The Thomas Crown Affair, Hitch, The Purple Rose of Cairo, and Across the Universe. In 2008, she was the subject of Hats Off, a 2008 feature-length documentary. Weddell died September, 24th, 2009, at the age of 94. No doubt, she went out in style.
