The Seasoned Life

A Fireplace Tale

This book draws parallels of our human lifespan to that of the weather seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The author assumes the useful years of our being to be eighty. He divides these years equally into the four seasons, being twenty years each. The spring season is viewed to be promissory, belonging to the parents or the system that nurtures the young into the confident and independent person of the latter years. Come summer, we become adults as we reach the peak of our physical growth and energy. Autumn in the life of plants is the fall of leaves. Likewise, humanly, red flags start showing up at this time, signaling the reality of our mortality. From the summer years until somewhere in the winter years, we are wired to be productive. But it is the winter season that calls for us to be collected and to pass on what we have gathered over the mileage of our lives to those in waiting. The author notes that while we all can survive spring, summer, and autumn, we surely go to sleep in winter. We never start the cycle all over again. At best, the winter can be long. In other words, we can live to around anything past eighty. However, he argues that past eighty, we live a preventative life pattern. The message of the book is that all seasons are beautiful and it is in our interest to take advantage of each season while it lasts.