The age of 49 is a time to reorient and mature. The Greek philosopher Plato, as always, offers some guidance.
Around the time we turn 49, we tend to question our self-image. We often experience self-doubt and emphasize more the deficit on our balance sheet of life. Add to this questioning the fact that—for the last 49 years—we’ve been convinced our bodily performance would continue unabated. The first signs of demise disrupt this autosuggestion. We probably find our careers overly burdensome and perhaps even our familial obligations as well. At 49, we slow down and no longer find it as easy to get back into our previous rhythms. We feel depressed, and this can lead to moments of personal exhaustion. At the same time, a general reassessment offers the chance to refurbish our world, so to speak. But how? No one has prepared us for this new phase of life. It comes around the corner unannounced and demands that we let go of any delusional thoughts. We feel that life will no longer come so easily in the future. Our own development will no longer automatically move upward. We have the feeling that now the second half of life begins. What do we even want anymore? What can we still achieve? And as long as there are no clear answers or perspectives on this, we lack certainty about what lies ahead. Those of us who have a quiet sense of where life’s journey is headed at 49 can count ourselves lucky.
A New Level
Even at 42, we still wanted to reach a higher level in our morals and ethics. The urge to uplift our inward maturity to a new level continues as we turn 49. Our soul has become more compassionate toward the needs of humanity. Perhaps an inward longing for a new organ of perception is even emerging within us. From now on, something is beginning to take shape in this realm that resembles a new capacity to view things in a positive and independent way. Many of us use this phase of life for realignment. Conscious perception increases our self-esteem. We are better able to let things unfold rather than compulsively trying to shape them ourselves. The well-being of others comes into focus more than ever before. At 49, we learn to let go of our disappointments. Instead, we realize that we do not have to reach every goal in order to approve of our lives. At 49, we can be more prudent by accepting that false hopes are not something we need to pursue.
New Ideas
If we have the courage and the will to add a new dimension to our lives at this stage, we can explore the question of what higher ideas are. We can try to familiarize ourselves with the “idea of the Good.” Plato attributes a real existence to what specific things generally have in common. He understands concrete things solely as representations of ideas which have a preexisting reality. Plato thereby became a pioneer of ideal realism. He knows the idea in things and the things in ideas. In this truth, we can find a connection to a higher idea.
This presupposes that we give over our initial sensations to our activity of thinking. A new kind of sensation and perception begins when we turn to our thoughts. We comprehend our own thinking through thinking about it; we catch a glimpse of thinking within thinking; we see, hear, and feel through thinking—that is the task of this stage of life. In this respect, thinking itself now becomes something entirely new. We strive to become human beings who can attain a higher level of thinking. For the vast majority of us, this stage of life marks a new beginning. It constitutes a kind of soul-spirit rebirth that opens up thinking to us in a new way: thinking becomes an organ of perception.
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Photo Sergui Valena, Unsplash
