What Aging Men Want: The Odyssey as a Parable of Male Aging

Two decades ago the poet Robert Bly published a book that stayed on the New York Times Bestseller list for sixty-two weeks and changed a generation of men. Based on an ancient fairy tale, Iron John became an allegory for midlife men in search of an authentic life. I was part of the men s movement launched by this poet and the book I wrote at that time, Death of a Hero, Birth of the Soul, became one of its bibles. This same army of 38 million men is now marching into their retirement years largely unprepared for what aging really entails or what to do with the next twenty-five years of unprecedented longevity gifted them by science and medicine. Boomers, of course, believe that they will conquer this stage with exercise, attitude, and nutrition. As their problems and defeats multiply, however, aging men and I am one of them now discover that they are lost once again in an unknown land longing for another great story to guide them home. I have found that story.