An Encouraging Word

 

It is never too late to be what you might have been

--George Eliot

 

Prill Boyle, author of Defying Gravity: A Celebration of Late-Blooming Women, offers twelve portraits of women who chose to pursue their dreams at midlife and in their later years.  For example, Linda Bach becomes a medical doctor at 50, Evelyn Gregory becomes a flight attendant at 62, and Jane Work earns a Ph.D. and becomes a licensed psychologist at 57.

 

Boyle gives us extracts from her own journal describing her hopes and fears of becoming a published writer as she approaches 50.  She shares the stories from her in-depth interviews with ordinary women who seem extraordinary because they chose to pursue their dreams, despite the fact that they and others might consider themselves too old, or not “[good] enough” to pursue work, education, and other goals they want.

 

In addition to the twelve stories, Defying Gravity also includes mention of examples of notable women who made their mark in later life, such as Grandma Moses, who began painting in her late seventies, Julia Child who hosted the PBS series, The French Chef, beginning at age 51, and Lillian Carter who joined the Peace Corps at age 68 and worked for two years in India.

 

This book is a source of inspiration for baby boomers, yet it also offers hope to people of any age who want to make a difference in the world, and who choose not to settle for the circumstances and limiting conditions they faced as children or younger adults.

 

 Boyle reminds us that since it may be now possible for more of us to live to be one hundred- or at least far beyond an expiration date in our seventies- we may wish to

follow the thinking of a centarian who was asked if she had any regrets about her life and responded, “If I had known I would live to be a hundred, I would have taken up the violin at forty.  By now I could have been playing for sixty years!”