The Bonus Years of Adulthood

Exploring the Newest Stage of the Life-Cycle

Maggie Scarf, author and journalist, is a Fellow of Jonathan Edwards College, Yale. Her latest book is September Songs: The Good News About Marriage in the Later Years. See full bio

January 12, 2009

Remarriage Is More Fragile Than First Marriage

Are later marriages generally more successful and stable than first-time marriages? And, given that most remarriages (some 90 percent) follow upon divorce rather than death, do the disaffected ex-partners tend to make smarter, more mutually satisfying choices in a second or higher-order relationship? Read More

January 12, 2009

The Emergence of the Marriage Gap

Since the great social ferment of the 1960s, a number of alternatives to old-fashioned, traditional marriage have emerged on the social scene. Relationships that once were viewed as morally offensive - sexual partners living together before marrying; out-of-wedlock births; single-parent child rearing - are now both acceptable and commonplace. Couples enter wedlock with a more light-hearted attitude ("If this doesn't work out, I can move on). Read More

December 16, 2008

Have we foreknowledge of our fates?

Is there such a thing as foreknowledge of one's fate? Carl Jung thought that such a phenomenon existed. A patient of his dreamed of being in a skiing accident in which he was killed, and Jung advised him sternly to cancel plans for a forthcoming ski holiday. The patient ignored that advice and went ahead with his plans: He actually did die in a ski accident during that ski trip! Read More

December 4, 2008

Interview with a Pentecostal

He identified himself as a Pentecostal on my e-mail, and asked for an interview in regard to my recent book, September Songs. My book is about "young-old" adult long-marrieds (couples 50-75 yrs), so I thought the topic of our talk would be clear. But should I identify myself as Secular in advance, or just let the subject come up in our talk? Read More

November 24, 2008

Is This Really Worth Fighting About?

The intensity of arguments change over time. In 1980, I wrote a book about marriage - Intimate Partners - in which the oldest couple interviewed was in their late forties. I got a lot of flak about that from older readers, who wrote to me and said, "Hey, what about us? We're still alive and kicking! Why exclude the marriages of older people? Read More

November 15, 2008

The Bonus Years of Adult Life

Exploring this new stage of the life-cycle. Read More

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