MY MID-LIFE CRISIS AND AFTERWARD: VARIOUS HERMENEUTICAL ANALYSES OF LIVED EXPERIENCES: PART 2 - HEART CHALLENGES AND SOCIAL SUPPORT

EDWARD READ BARTON

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DOI: 10.2190/AW1M-CJJ2-F8GB-Q42F

Abstract

In the previous experience report, there was the beginning of an exploration of the interpretation of the midlife of men from various hermeneutical perspectives. The first interpretation is what might be called "typical U.S. professionalism," which is mostly concerned with "written in stone" laws, rules, and procedures that are overly deterministic, constrictive, cultural deployments. The second is a mythopoetic interpretation of mythopoetic men's work, which is more fluid, imaginative, creative, interpretative, and has been and continues to be emotionally healing for me. Here in Part 2, there is a sharing of the experience of heart challenges and the social support that resulted from my New Warrior Brothers. Part 3 (which follows this article) provides a theoretical context through several less poignant, drier frameworks, including autoethnography, personal narrative, and imagoes. Finally, the summary calls for an enlivened hermeneutics for men--interpretations that include feelings, connectedness, lived experiences . . . moistened by the power of the heart.

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