Later-life lessons

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot defines a new life stage in her book ''The Third Chapter.'' (BILL GREENE/GLOBE STAFF)

Sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, professor of education at Harvard and former chairwoman of the board of the MacArthur Foundation, names a new life stage in her ninth book, "The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50." (She defines the first two chapters as young adulthood and middle age.) She interviewed more than 40 "new learners" in later life, achievers who put aside careers to follow radically new paths - a business executive becomes a part-time international relief worker, a senior publishing editor becomes a playwright, a high-powered corporate lawyer throws himself into inner-city community gardening. Lawrence-Lightfoot, 64, says such transitions are normal and healthy, if sometimes wrenching and fearful at first.

Q. What drew you to this subject?

A. I was always a listener. At dinner parties or professional meetings, people would tell me this exciting story, in almost a confessional, sotto voce way, about their new interest, passion, sense of adventure. It was incredibly fascinating, listening to their excitement.

Q. Why are most of your interviewees well-educated, relatively affluent people?

A. You have to have some level of perceived abundance to have some level of choice. When I began to write the book, I realized there are lessons for people who don't have those material resources but still can feel claustrophobic, in a rut. I was talking to a man who was fixing my dishwasher, who told me about taking a cooking course. His wife had always done all the cooking, and he was talking about this new passion that had opened a new place for him to be a different person.

Q. Are high achievers more susceptible to this impulse?

A. These achievers tended to be curious people, but their curiosity was no longer being served. The work in which they had gained success and status was no longer a domain where they asked important questions, in which they wanted to take risks. It no longer inspired or challenged them.

Q. Is family support important for these big changes?

A. It's so much easier to take on new adventures and risks if the people around you, whether kids or a spouse, give you the space, and offer their cheerleading and best wishes. It's not essential, however.

Q. Why is this happening?

A. Demographers tell us that in every century we seem to discover a new stage. In the last century it was adolescence. This period between 50 and 75 is probably the developmental stage of this century. We are living longer and living healthier much longer. I think that more and more we will accept that this is the time to spread our wings and take flight, to sing a new song.

DAVID MEHEGAN