Fear of Life

You are surely a beautiful woman with a great deal of experience. I must say that you interest me for several reasons. Let me please share with you and ask some questions. There is a theory about humans that I learned from Joseph Campbell.

Life is the opening and closing of different stages from birth to death for each of us. Upon death depending on the story, myth, or religion that we follow we believe that we will go to heaven. For us heaven is individualized. Other points of view are that we come back for more experiences, it just ends, we do not know, or after enough knowledge we become one with the universe.

According to Campbell we often resist the change to a new life. We hold on to our current stage with great determination. As a marketing professor I believe that our society wants us all to remain young and in an earlier stage of life. In this adolescent stage, we are dedicated to self and consumption.

When we resists the new stage a few things can happen. One. We stop and get stuck for a lifetime in a particular stage. Two. We skip a stage and then have to return to complete it. Three. We go through and find joy in the process. Four. We tell others that we are still in an earlier stages but in fact, we have made the transitions.

At this time in history we believe that education, travel, and life experiences with other people and cultures is a means of informing and guiding us in our movement through the stages of life. Each stage has a concept of beauty. Beauty for the young bride is different than for a grandmother. You were extremely successful in your life in an early stage with beauty. By any standard you are still beautiful. Do you think that you are clinging to an earlier stage of beauty? Wishing to forgo the later stages.

Do you think you have made this transition because of your life experiences to a different life stage with beauty? I would ask the same think about the current stage of wealth. In the middle stage we accumulate wealth. As we age we seek other less material conquests. We search for such experiences as finding the meaning in our life.

I said to myself this woman would never care for me in my stage of life. She wants what I can no longer give. I stopped myself because I have found that it is so difficult if not impossible to assess anyone and what they really want from life.

I am sure I missed many opportunities because I prejudged someone and really did not know. I decided not to make that mistake again. I would rather find that my judgments were wrong and move foreword. I have then not selected myself out of the opportunities of life.

David Morris
Copyright 2008