The Odyssey comprises eighteen powerful adventures, each symbolising a developmental challenge confronting men on the long journey home.
Most aging men initially behave like Odysseus' crew. Never questioning their lifelong warrior ways, they continue pushing ahead in everything they do. In fact, nearly all men continue in their accustomed warrior mode at first because it is all they know.
Some of us also make the mistake of continuing other "wars" ...with spouses, adult children, neighbours, local government, co-workers and imagined political foes. These battles can serve as defensive distractions from underlying feelings of failure, disappointment, fear or depression. In this way, personal problems get projected onto others and we avoid the light of self-awareness.
Age also influences how we approach this journey home. In their early sixties, men still feel pretty immortal, until men experience the reality of aging bodies and accept the inevitability of personal death. Odysseus' adventures merely represent a good story. For some reason, the earlier men retire, the longer it may take them to work through these challenges, for the "young" old have not yet felt the shudder of age.
Age is a force that changes us, but it acts through the first-hand knowledge of physical decline and personal mortality.
The first mistake we make on the road to wisdom and maturity is to not change at all but, simply continue the warrior life of competition, achievement, performance and self-aggrandisement.
You and I are Odysseus wending our way home, but too often we travel alone. Why not join forces and travel the many lands of The Odyssey together?
Men Mentoring Men
Dictionaries define a 'mentor' as one who offers sage advice or counsel to a younger person. In fact, the word comes from role Mentor played in The Odyssey. While the role of a male mentor usually involves the relationship between an older and a younger man, it could just as appropriately refer to older men helping each other.
Thus was born the idea of the male mentoring group to help each other cope with aging issues, for example the growth of 'Men's Sheds' in Australia.
The ideas for starting and running an Older Men's Mentoring Group where the approach is "peer mentoring," (a gathering of like-minded individuals who can offer guidance for one another) can be found in the Appendix of the new book, "What Aging Men Want: The Odyssey as a Parable of Male Aging" by John C. Robinson, Ph.D., D.Min.
Business Tips
What Aging Men Want
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- Parent Category: Business Tips
- Category: Self-Motivation & Awareness
