On this my 56^th birthday, things have simplified themselves considerably. What use would I have for a lot of money at this stage, when the end of all things is near? Why a bigger house, when the number of indwellers shrinks? Fame? That and two bucks will get you a cup of coffee.

When one pushes his boat out from the shore at evening, and bobs out to sea, he takes in all the city lights and is intoxicated with the sight. But the farther into the night one paddles out, the dimmer and less distinct the light-studded cityscape grows, till from a distance only the brightest glows are still visible.

Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree tells of the boy who wanted everything, and the tree so eager to oblige. But in the end the boy returned, wrinkled, bent, and a more than a little disillusioned by the things he had craved.

From this distance of near three-score years, the minor lights that once intrigued me have faded from view and only these remain in my horizon: Christ and to live for him. Companions like Christ and to live with them. All the rest is like what Jeremiah 3:23 says — a commotion and delusion.

Imagine your spouse has Alzheimer’s. As if that’s not hard enough, imagine this spouse had forgotten about your marriage and had found a new significant other.

This scenario is not only the basis of a recent movie (“Away From Her”), it’s also reality for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

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David Brooks says, “There used to be four common life phases: childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age.”  And now, he wants to add another: “Odyssey.”  The odyssey stage happens in between adolescence and adulthood - to be precise, in the twenties. 

During this decade, 20-somethings go to school and take breaks from school. They live with friends and they live at home. They fall in and out of love. They try one career and then try another.

It’s a time for uncertainty, indeed.

Old success recipes don’t apply, new norms have not been established and everything seems to give way to a less permanent version of itself. Dating gives way to Facebook and hooking up. Marriage gives way to cohabitation. Church attendance gives way to spiritual longing. Newspaper reading gives way to blogging.

Some of this is good, much of it bad.  So, how do we prevent the new Odyssey phase from being the Prodigal phase?

One of my favorite children’s books is Tomie dePaola’s Now One Foot, Now the Other, about the relationship between a boy, Bobby, and his grandfather, and how it changes after the grandfather has a stroke. Still My Grandma also deals with aging, this time as a little girl tries to understand what’s happening when her grandmother develops Alzheimer’s. At first the two shop together, bake together, take walks together and share traditions, including a special kiss. But one day the grandma doesn’t know her name. And then she puts her shoes in the refrigerator. It’s a tenderly told story with simple illustrations, and it ends with comforting words: “It’s true that she’s not the same person she used to be, but she’s still my Grandma and I love her very much. She loves me too. I can tell because she still remembers our special kiss.”