Column: Encore! Encore!

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By Rev’d Dr. Ed Horstmann

Golf? That’s right. Golf. There were golf clubs in my mother’s apartment. Up to that point in her life, I had never seen her express even the slightest interest in the sport, or any other for that matter.

An avid walker, and creative gardener, she never felt the need, or desire, to exercise in ways that cost money or extravagant amounts of time.

But when my mother approached her seventieth year, she developed a new orientation to life. After selling our family home in Vermont, she moved to an apartment outside Schenectady, N.Y., a more urban environment. One day, while out for a drive in her new surroundings, she came across a nine-hole golf course tucked in a suburban neighborhood and, for reasons unknown to me to this day, she chose to visit it and that opened up a whole new world for her. She rented some clubs, checked out the putting green, practiced on the driving range, and became a true lover of the sport. It was at that time, while visiting her, that I saw the golf clubs. Not long afterwards we were out on the course together with my children tagging along.

I think that the second act of my mother’s life brought her a sense of joy that had been elusive through most of her adult years. And when she took one leap of faith, she discovered that others were to follow. She signed up for painting classes, and soon art brushes and oil paints joined her golf clubs as treasured possessions. She volunteered at a soup kitchen in Albany, and each Thanksgiving made a pilgrimage to a local Italian bakery where she successfully persuaded the owners to provide desserts for the holiday dinner at that soup kitchen.

I am inspired by my mother’s willingness to become vulnerable to change. When she downsized her home, little did she know how much that transition would upgrade her life.

I see a comparison between her journey of faith and openness to mystery, and the way that so many biblical characters made their latter years a time of rewarding and beneficial activity. Abram was 75-years-old when he and his wife, Sarai, were called by God out of retirement to welcome the journey of a lifetime:  a one-way ticket to the promised land. Moses and Aaron were eighty and eighty-three years old respectively when they confronted the Egyptian Pharaoh with this memorable message from God: “Let my people go.” Thus began the Exodus, a radical act of liberation that set the people of Israel on a new path of freedom.

When F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that “there are no second acts in life” he was clearly writing from a very narrow base of experience. Over three decades as a pastor I have witnessed more times than I can count the flowering of life and commitment and learning among people precisely at the time when they might have chosen more private and leisurely pursuits. My dear friend, Bud Thompson, is one such person. A life long advocate for American Indians, he established a museum in Warner, New Hampshire to affirm and celebrate the rich fund of traditions and crafts that American Indians have used to sustain their way of life over the centuries. Bud started that museum when he turned seventy, and just celebrated the twenty-fifth year of its existence. With all due respect to Mr. Fitzgerald, that’s what I would call a second act, and there are plenty more like it.

I am thankful for people like Marci Alboher, who believe in second acts and are helping people to craft them as their lives mature. Marci is the vice president of Encore.org, a nonprofit making it easier for millions of people to pursue second acts for the greater good. She is the author of The Encore Career Handbook: How to Make a Living and Difference in the Second Half of Life.

Through her work at Encore.org she helps experienced adults embrace the idea of leveraging their skills and talents to improve communities and the world. Generation to Generation, a signature program of Encore.org, is a campaign to mobilize the skills of adults aged 50+ to improve the prospects for children and youth.

Marci will speak at Round Hill Community Church tonight, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. and I can’t wait to learn from her insights. She will help us to imagine creative ways of developing a second exciting act for our lives, which can create goodness in the world around us. After her talk she will sign copies of her book. And several local organizations (the Greenwich United Way, Boys and Girls Club, and Inspirica) will be available to guide attendees toward possible avenues of service.

I hope you can join us this evening. It may be a significant step to a second act in your life, and a resounding encore!

The Rev. Dr. Edward G. Horstmann is senior minister at Round Hill Community Church in Greenwich.

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