When I posted that I
was just promoted to 40 (salamat at down ang firewall :)), I got these many comments about life beginning at 40. I
was curious about what this phrase really meant and the origin of it. So I did
my little review of literature and here’s what I got (from the internet of
course).
"It means“Life begins to be better in one's middle age.”
It’s deemed origin
The notion that 'life begins at forty' is a 20th century
one; prior to that it was more accurate to say 'death begins at forty' as most
people didn't live much beyond that age. Life expectancy in mediaeval England
was around 25 years and only reached forty sometime around the turn of the 20th
century. By the 1930s many, in western societies at least, could expect a
decent spell of reasonably affluent retirement, free from work and the
responsibilities of childcare. Household gadgets like washing machines and
vacuum cleaners were becoming more widely used and had begun to relieve women's
drudgery and offer them increasing amounts of leisure time as compared to their
Victorian mothers.
In 1932, the American psychologist Walter Pitkin
published the self-help book Life Begins at Forty. Pitkin stated
confidently:
“Life begins at forty. This is the revolutionary
outcome of our New Era. Today it is half a truth. Tomorrow it will be an axiom.”
Pitkin is often credited with coining the phrase and,
while it is true that his popular book was the cause of it becoming part of the
language, he wasn't the first to express the idea, or even the phrase itself.
The take-up of the idea was rapid and 'life begins at forty' appears many times
in newspapers and other printed records from 1932 onwards. This was propelled
further into the American consciousness in 1937 via a recording of the song
'Life begins at Forty', written by Yellen and Shapiro and sung by Sophie
Tucker.
However, we need to go back a way to find the origin of
the phrase. The great 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer came
close to it with his view:
"The first forty years of life give us the text:
the next thirty supply the commentary."
In keeping with the reduction of the toil of domestic
work and child rearing that began freeing up women's free time to some extent
at the start of the 20th century, the first reference to life beginning at
forty refers specifically to women.
Mrs. Theodore Parsons was Physical Director of Schools
in Chicago and, in 1912, wrote Brain Culture Through Scientific Body
Building. It wasn't a runaway best-seller, but the arrival of the USA in
the First World War in 1917 gave her views a new lease of life. In April of
that year The Pittsburgh Press printed a feature on Mrs. Parsons and
her no-nonsense opinions about the benefits of a brisk exercise programme that
she acquired from her soldier husband (Mr. Theodore Parsons was, sadly,
recently deceased - presumably from exhaustion):
"The average woman does
not know how to breathe, sit, stand or walk. Now I want women to train for the
special duties which may devolve upon them in war time. Death begins at thirty,
that is, deterioration of the muscle cells sets in. Attention to diet and
exercise would enable men and women to live a great deal longer than they do
today. The best part of a woman's life begins at forty."
What special duties Mrs. Parsons had in mind, stationed
as she was in Chicago, isn't clear. The paper was good enough to include a
graphic of the dynamic couple, demonstrating their method in action, so you can
give it a try and see if it works.
Life expectancy has continued to move on and forty now
seems no age at all. In 1991, the New York Times printed this opinion:
All our age benchmarks, which used to seem solid as
rocks, have turned into shifting sands. 'Life begins at 40? More like 60'."
So, if it originated
with the issue on life expectancy then maybe (or who knows) life probably has
not begun yet for me. It’s probably “life begins at 50, 60, 70.”
If it meant the time
when the toil of domestic work and child rearing had ended and I have more free
time, then life also probably has not begun yet for me. I have two very young boys
-one turning 6 and the other turning 2 both in November. In that case “life
begins at 50” and if I do decide to try having another one-girl (oops), then “life
begins at 60, 70”.
But if indeed the
phrase meant “life begins to better in one’s ‘middle-age’” and if we define ‘middle-age’
as “the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age”
then it’s really relative depending on your current state when you hit the
middle-age. One maybe still trying to conceive while one probably is starting
to put through college her kids so that ‘life getting better’ may or may not
really be true for all.
Anyway, even for this
phrase in verdict, we can also always look at it from the worldview of the
gospel. When we do that, then life for us really begun the moment we have
consciously understood and accepted Christ’s redemptive grace in our lives. To
the Evangelicals, this might actually be the time you have been converted. To
the Pentecostals, this might be the time you thought you have experienced the
baptism with the Holy Spirit. To those with the reformed view, this might
actually be at the time you have been regenerated—the exact time you may not
know. Quoting John Murray:
There is a change that God effects in man, radical
and reconstructive in its nature, called new birth, new creation, regeneration,
renewal—a change that cannot be accounted for by anything that is in lower
terms than the interposition of the almighty power of God....It is the Holy
Spirit working directly, efficaciously and irresistibly upon man’s heart and
mind, making the man over again, and creating him anew after the image of
Christ in holiness and righteousness of the truth. A revolution, a
reconstruction takes place at the center of man’s moral and spiritual being:
sin and pollution are dethroned in the citadel of man’s being, and
righteousness takes its place.
In later Reformed theology the term regeneration has been chosen to
designate the initial act, that act in which God alone is active, while conversion is frequently used to
designate the logically subsequent phase in which the person is active as a
result of the grace which the person’s consciousness is engaged in the exercise
of faith and repentance. Regeneration in this restricted sense is logically
antecedent to any saving response in the consciousness or understanding of the
subject. Regeneration is a change wrought by the Spirit in order that the
person may savingly respond to the summons, or demand of the call, embodied in the
gospel call (John Murray, Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh:
Banner, 1977), Volume 2, pp. 171-172).
So, did life begin for me when I turned forty some days ago?
Yes and No.
Yes, life begun for me at forty because I realized I should
become more conscious and serious about
doing things with more relevance and significance, whether it is for my family,
my work, my friends, the brethren or for the Kingdom. Yun bang nakakahiya na po yata na wala pang nagagawa na may eternal significance kasi 40 na.
Yes, because the fear of “baka ako’y tumanda na walang pinagkatandaan”
started to set in. The phrase ‘maiksi lang
ang buhay’ became much more real.
No, because my belief is life indeed begun when God, because
of His love, effected in me the new birth—‘radical and reconstructive in its
nature’. That by virtue of the grace of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection,
and through repentance and faith, I am redeemed, justified, and continuously
being sanctified. I cannot say exactly when that life begun and I will never be
perfect until that fateful day in glory, but I cannot be more thankful to the
faithful One who made it possible for my life to begin.
References:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/life-begins-at-forty.html
