Settling In

Reverend Richard L. Morgan's 2006 SETTLING IN: MY FIRST YEAR IN A RETIREMENT COMMUNITY defies simple categorization. *** --(1) It seems primarily a memoir worked up from a journal the author kept. The book's focus is the author, what he did, what he thought, how he felt, how he prayed and what he did to be of use to people in his retirement community and the town in which it is located. The book is a first person singular narrative with perhaps 90% of the attention focused like a laser on the author himself. *** --(2) Next, SETTLING IN is about the author's residence: a Presbyterian retirement home named Redstone Highlands (URL: http://www.redstonehighlands.org/). It is located in North Huntingdon Township, Pennsylvania (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Huntingdon_Township,_Westmoreland_County,_Pennsylvania), a city of 31,000 near Pittsburgh. *** --(3) The author warns against being an Aesopian grasshopper and putting off till too late thinking about moving into a retirement community. Your children will thank you if you do not dump caring for yourself and spouse in old age onto your younger, often frantically busy downline. Rather be like Aesop's ant: think things through, plan, consider what you can afford, plus climate, proximity to family and more. *** --(4) Put yourself in God's hands. Find and read relevant Scripture passages. Imagine that you are moving into a bisexual lay monastery. Life there is slow and can be meditative. What is God calling you to do with and for other residents there? But in addition do not neglect your neighbors outside the walls of your retirement community. ***Finally, SETTLING IN contains two "attaboy" essays by others praising Reverend Morgan's book. The first attaboy is the Foreword by Jane Thibault, Associate Professor of Family and Geriatric Medicine, School of Geriatric Medicine, University of Louisville. Professor Thibault opines that Richard L. Morgan addresses well four fears commonly confronted by people in the fourth quarter of life: age 75 and older. *** The second attaboy is "Introduction: The Third Age." It is penned by Dr. Henry S. Simmons, Director/Center for Aging, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia. The "third age" is made up of the years "from fifty to death." Reverend Morgan is praised for his word pictures framed by his experience in a retirement community of four great life themes especially urgent in the last third of life: "freedom, intimacy, meaning, and death." *** In addition to readings from Scripture and secular authors scattered through the narrative, Morgan's book concludes with NOTES, BIBLICAL INDEX AND ABOUT THE AUTHOR. "He is the author of many books on the spirituality of aging, published by Upper Room Books." *** Over to you. I hope that this sketch of contents gives you enough information for a rational decision whether to read this book. -OOO-