Challenges of the third age meaning and purpose in later life

"This volume addresses issues of the Third Age -- that time after retirement when financial stability and reduced obligations to others, together, allow for freedom -- and good health makes it possible to enjoy that freedom. This title aims to answer questions such as: how, in this special time of life, is meaning and purpose to be found?"@en
"The newly retired are entering a time of life that is virtually uncharted, a time in which they are free from social expectations and, to a large extent, from obligations to others. Life's meanings are no longer provided by work and family. Instead, men and women have the freedom, and the need, to find new activities that they can imbue with meaning. (Somabec)."
"Whether it was planter patriarchs struggling to maintain authority, or Jewish families coerced by Christian evangelicalism, or wives and mothers left behind to care for slaves and children, the Civil War took a terrible toll. From the bustling sidewalks of Richmond to the parched plains of the Texas frontier, from the rich Alabama black belt to the Tennessee woodlands, no corner of the South went unscathed. Through the prism of the southern family, this volume of twelve original essays provides fresh insights into this watershed in American history."