For Immediate Release             Contact:  Nancy Frey 907-376-2932 nancy@autodidactic.com

 

 Beyond Golf and Card Games:  New Book Presents a Philosophy for Fulfillment in the Golden Years

 In popular culture, retirement is the stage of life when hardworking adults get to kick back their heels and enjoy leisure, recreation and consumption.  Quite a different vision comes forward in a new book on the rewards and opportunities of maturity, The Rapture of Maturity: A Legacy of Lifelong Learning.  Beyond midlife, thinking about fundamental issues and preparing a legacy for one's descendants offer the surest preventives against meaninglessness and despair, suggests author Charles D. Hayes.

 The true rewards of later life, says Hayes, consist of intellectual and spiritual pleasures from: 

• Sifting wisdom from your life experience and seeking insight through thoughtful reflection
• Rekindling your interest in learning about yourself and the world
• Connecting with younger generations to pass on your lived experience and enthusiasm for authentic living
• Resolving to make some contribution to global harmony and the future of humanity

Seniors adopting these objectives will put life into perspective, enlarge their worldview and remain mentally vibrant, says Hayes. In this context, "rapture" refers to sheer intellectual joy at being alive, the reward for living authentically, striving to better understand the world, and accepting responsibility for posterity. "It's possible to leave a vapor trail of your own interests so visible and powerful that anyone who comes near is caught up in the wake," Hayes says in The Rapture of Maturity.

 Hayes, a self-taught philosopher, has been writing about the value of self-education for nearly two decades. As one of America's leading voices for lifelong learning, he has been featured in USA Today, in the UTNE Reader, and on NPR's "Talk of the Nation." He has been a Marine, a police officer, and an oil industry worker in Alaska. His previous books include the award-winning Beyond the American Dream, as well as Training Yourself, Proving You're Qualified, and Self-University. His recent novel, Portals in a Northern Sky, has inspired readers across the country to read or reread classic literature. He was a contributing writer for Creating Learning Communities, published by The Foundation for Educational Renewal.

The Rapture of Maturity: A Legacy of Lifelong Learning

By Charles D. Hayes
Autodidactic Press, $21.95, Hardcover, 224 pages
Dist. Ingram Book Company ISBN:  0-9621979-4-7, Publication date: September 1, 2004

 The Rapture of Maturity provides young and old with a roadmap for developing a heightened awareness of life's mental treasures and a new and profound understanding of the mysteries of human existence.