Unmasking and Remaking Ourselves in our Seventies

When we retire, others may think we have retreated from the world, but in fact we are now free from the versions of ourselves that we didn’t choose. So, what looks like retreating is simply being a more authentic self. This can be both freeing and daunting at the same time. Sometimes those masks are learned behaviour, or are based on gender or societal expectations which are all more difficult to shed. We may find that after wearing a particular mask for so long we aren’t sure who we are without it. As we talk through what it means to find a new self in our 70’s we discover that who we are now is still in development. We also discover that we have more agency to reject masks and be unfiltered. We are more aware of our capacity to learn and to disregard the expectations of others as we move toward our new selves. In short, in the words of Karl Jung, “Later life is not merely decline but it can be an undertaking for establishing a different psychological and spiritual vocation.” An exciting task for our seventies.