Of long ago, Ira Glass, host
of the public-radio show This American Life, asked a group he was addressing how many of
them had given up their initial ambitions
in life and had fallen back on what he
called "Plan B;' an alternate career or destiny. There
was a lot of laughter. "Plan B?" said several. "I'm on Plan D, E, maybe F."
No doubt about it,
Americans are direction changers, self-reinventors, and improvisers, especially when it comes to career and calling. It's
part of our heritage-moving to the
frontier was Plan B for a lot of folks-and it's also a response to our
swiftly changing present. Industries die and are born almost overnight, jobs
disappear or change beyond recognition as technology alters, and
as we live longer we discover that we can chase a whole new calling (or two or
three) after midlife.
Perhaps most
significantly of all, we've come to believe that
an important part of that principle of the Declaration of Independence,
the pursuit of happiness, is a quest for meaning
in what we do and how we live, So we're prime
candidates for what used to be rather boringly
called Adult Education-and which has been redubbed Lifelong Learning. There's a bewildering array of schools and companies out there that will teach us
old dogs new tricks from the latest computer refinements to English
literature to how to become a certified
Celebrant (yes, the Celebrant USA
Foundation in New Jersey shows aspirants how to design and lead individualized rituals for weddings, wakes, and what have you). Add to this a gazillion book groups, study circles, salons, church study groups, political groups, arts organizations, and community center
programs, and there's almost no excuse not to learn something new.