Profiles of Late Style: Carol & Peter Schreck
“We never stop growing, ever — even into our dying. How I die is part of how I’m continuing to grow into the next stage.”
Professional therapists Carol and Peter Schreck have had rewarding careers defined by clinical and educational work in both domestic and international settings. Their reservoir of professional competency and experience, as well as a deeply-rooted faith perspective, continue to fuel a joy and commitment to their work.
Well past the age of traditional retirement, the Schrecks continue to be engaged in their clinical practice, regularly seeing clients and leading trainings. Carol explains that because she sees her work as a vocation, it is an integral part of who she is. “There’s no retirement in the Lord’s work. I think it’s not an ought — It’s a joy. I love life and I love to work with people who want to grow. It keeps me growing.”
From Generativity to Integrity
While their professional work serves people of all ages, both Carol and Peter have taught courses and worked with clients dealing with the joys and challenges of aging. From a theoretical perspective, they believe the process of aging can actually promote a more fruitful expression of creativity.
The Schrecks draw on the work of Erik Erikson, a psychologist known for his theory of life stages, who proposed that as one matures there can be a movement towards others. In one’s penultimate life stage of productivity, or “generativity”, there is a settling into life, relationships, and careers. In this stage there is also an opportunity for innovation, fruitfulness, and investment in others.
Many of the Late Style profiles we have featured in this blog are examples of people in their later years continuing to generate significant contributions to their disciplines. Carol explains, “I think creativity comes from a very deep core of self…We never stop growing, ever — even into our dying. How I die is part of how I’m continuing to grow into the next stage.”
This pursuit of growth over a lifetime, combined with the knowledge that one has been generative, promotes a freedom to embrace ones own gifts as well as the gifts in others. Peter continues, “It’s sort of saying: I don’t need to worry about how somebody else is going to assess what I’m doing. I feel like I know what I’m doing and I’m also entitled to do some things with more self-confidence. I think experience gives the quality to age. It’s that I’m competent in something…and with competence comes the sense that I can do something with more freedom.”
Peter says the freedom that comes in the last stages of life is both a state of being and something to actively pursue. He explains, “It’s not just that it’s out there. It’s something you receive as you get older, but it’s also something that you do as you get older. It’s both object and subject so to speak.”
Broadening Perspectives
When the Schrecks look at the trajectory of their careers, there is a clear deepening and expansion of their work. Evidence of this movement was a decision to expand their work internationally. Midway through their career, the Schrecks decided to move their family overseas. Peter explains, “We didn’t stop doing what we were doing here. That was still our major involvement and focus….but there were new dimensions added to it.”
Peter continues, it was a “feeling that we had something we wanted to share.” The Schrecks explain that their move was more about opportunity than age. A more mature perspective allowed them to take in the experience in a deeper way as a unique expression of freedom. “We would have benefited from international opportunities earlier on, but I think it wouldn’t have had the same depth of resonating in us, or challenging perspectives. It’s sort of a freedom. If you’re in a foreign context you’re more free to say, ‘Gee, this is a good way of doing it,’ instead of saying, ‘Why don’t they do it the way we’ve always done it?’
The Growing Edge
In the spirit of life-long growth, both Peter and Carol Schreck are reflective about the season that lies ahead of them. While they are currently living back in the U.S., the Schrecks continue to invest in training and equipping professional therapists around the world.
Peter shares that after he retired from teaching at the seminary, he told a friend, “I would like to use what I’ve learned — not just in the classroom or in my academic journey, but what I’ve learned about life. I would like to be a wise person that can mentor and share with others. I’d like to be able to say, ‘I’ll be available. I’ll be involved with people using some of those wisdom components’.”
He continues, “I think a growing edge for me [now] is to begin to be more engaged with the idea of my death. Coming to terms with that means learning how to let that be a part of the truth of my existence. How do you let your faith take you through this stage? How do I want to live in the meantime?”
The Profiles of Late Style blog series is part of the Departure and Discovery Project led by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society which is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Over the next few months, we will be featuring weekly stories that explore a whole range of perspectives on late style and its impact as an altogether universal human experience.
