Roxanne Reviews "Life is in the Transitions"

Roxanne reviews Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce Feiler.

Anyone who reads books knows that a book is written far in advance of the actual publication date. So to say that Bruce Felier’s new book Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age was prescient may be the understatement of all time! Felier begins his book discussing how modern time’s increases in life longevity, job choices and travel mobility have led to the end of life’s predictability.

While we’re not all like the band REO Speedwagon’s song “Roll With the Changes,” with fingers crossed that recent events have proved otherwise, Felier’s pre-pandemic book traces the roots of 225 Americans who suffered (and oft times triumphed) after experiencing what he termed “life disruptors.” These are based on the 1967 life stress inventory developed by psychiatrists Holmes and Rahe. Before Covid-19, the disruptor “Collective Event (war, storm, protest)” was just one tiny speck in a sea of his “Deck of Disruptors”...life changes that thankfully many of us don’t ever experience. Again, back to Felier’s thesis that life is unpredictable, never say never is not just a cliche.

Felier goes into detail how, depending on the individual and other concurrent changes, a disruptor can amount to a “life quake,” eliciting either the voluntary or involuntary need for significant life change. Fortunately, the book’s final half explains a step-by-step guide to navigate the process needed for meaningful and graceful change. In other words, a guide to turning life’s lessons into re-birth, growth and success.

While I was sometimes overwhelmed by the details of the 225 life stories, Felier’s chronicle was reassuring that our current Covid-19 experiences will lead to learning lessons and new beginnings for all of us if cool heads and love for each other prevail.