The Third Act of Life

By CHENG Liang, President, Eden Social Welfare Foundation

There is an old Chinese Probers "At the age of thirty, I stood firmly in society. At the age of forty, I understood things without any doubts. At the age of fifty, I knew that everything in life has its own purpose. At the age of sixty, I was able to accept different opinions. Now, at the age of seventy, I can do what my heart desires without overstepping any bounds." It is the manifestation of life's maturity at each stage.

The idea of the Third Act is to talk about how to live a better life after each stage's learning - appreciate life, enjoy life, make life meaningful, and to become a blessing to self, family, community, society, and country. The Third Act typically happened at the "golden years" of adulthood – the time between retirement and the beginning of age-affected physical, emotional, and cognitive deterioration, generally falling between the ages of 65 and 80.

【The Third Act】

Irish adult educationalist Dr. Edward Kelly developed the concept of "the Third Act." He believes that at this stage of life, people should be mature, set aside other's opinions, and develop their own interests. More than that, people are more capable of providing help, passing on knowledge and experiences, and of contributing to society. Since people nowadays live a longer life, every person would experience a longer age of life. As a result, we should pay more attention to make our life meaningful and shine - the Third Act. (Common Wealth Magazine 666)

Under the low birth rate and increasing aged population, people in their old age have to accept the fact that they usually are alone at home. However, without quality companionship and care, people in that stage of life are very likely to suffer from physical and mental disorders such as isolation, depression, bipolar disorders, etc. It is relatively difficult for them to start a delightful life stage.

【The Third Family】

Because of that, the author actively advocates: "To start the Third Act, we must build the Third Family" so that the quality of the Third Act could be enhanced.

The first family is the family where we were born, including ourselves, parents, and siblings. The second family is a self-formed or reconstituted family that we established with our spouses and children. The Third Family is a group of friends and family who have committed to growing old together.

This group of people committed to supporting each other - they help each other while living together and help each other to learn about self-help, mutual-help, and group-help. They form a community, similar to having neighbors in an agricultural society who "help each other with harvesting" to make up for the deficiency of the first and second families.

Living through the first and second families, we all believe that "Life accompanies life, life cares for life." is a great lesson to be learned and to be enjoyed in life. The "family members" of the Third Family who listen, accept, appreciate, and support each other so that the family member could help each other and enjoy the Third Act together.