Imagine Jane Pauley, potter.
Pauley, who ushered Americans into 1970s-80s mornings through 13 years on “Today,” who put in 12 years on “Dateline” and hosted a failed daytime talk show before revealing, in a 2004 book, her bipolar disease, used to talk about finding balance in life before balance in life was popular.
“Balance is still the grail,” she said.
These days, she finds it in the ceramics studio.
At 61, Pauley still lives on New York’s Fifth Avenue, is still married to cartoonist Gary Trudeau and continues to appear on TV, monthly on NBC’s “Today,” in addition to doing Internet radio and online chats for AARP. But she’s spending more time thinking generally about the reimagined life.
“We’re the first generation to get a heads up that we’re probably going to live longer than we thought.”
Pauley acknowledges that Baby Boomers tend to believe we invented everything — parenting, sex, rock ‘ n roll — so why not retirement? Even if we didn’t actually invent everything, Pauley thinks we may have the edge on inventing our own reinvention.
“We are the first and last generation to think in an active sense about reinvention. We are creating the template.”
Previous generations spent a lifetime at one job, earned the gold watch, then retired to rocking chairs. By contrast, future generations automatically assume they’ll have several different chapters, bouncing through various life phases and careers.
Boomers are on the cusp, breaking trail as usual, loooking for “a chance to redeem our youthful promise,” she said. We are “yearing for purpose and meaning.”
Pauley was in Colorado to film an installment of “Your Life Calling,” the monthly segment she does as AARP contributor to NBC’s “Today.” Her stories on adults 50+ reinventing their lives aren’t of the incredibly fit, mountain-climbing senior sort. They’re more inclinded to showcase a complete reimagining of a life and career. A minister who left his church to mentor soldiers in Iraq. An IT specialist who became a pizza restauranteur. Aspirational, but realistic.
“In hindsight, now it makes sense: this is consistent with what I like and what I always did best. My sister summed it up. She said, “You have a gift for letting people see themselves in powerful, positive new ways.”
In Colorado Springs, Pauley interviewed Jan Erickson, president of Janska, a company that makes comfortable fashion and “wellness wear.” Erickson was 52 when she literally had a dream about a garment. She had no background in design or merchandising. She now runs a clothing business that employs 30 people and did $1.5 million in business last year and that has created “thousands” of jobs. (The Erickson segment will air June 21 on “Today.”)
“I’m not a cheerleader,” Pauley said, (adding with a fake pout that she wanted to be one as a teenager but joined speech and debate instead. The rest is history.) To avoid raising false hope, she concludes each “Your Life Calling” segment with a “reality check” that notes the grueling work and finances required and, often, the need for an understanding spouse.
“I speak in metaphor,” Pauley said. She advises getting a duck or two in the water rather than worry about getting them in a row. No sense waiting for an ephipany, time is passing.
After years of having no time for extra-curriculars and no real hobbies, she finds herself thoroughly enjoying ceramics. She just brought home her first small creation. “The glazing looks like a kindergartener did it.” But the comfort she gets from the unfamiliar process of working with clay is significant: “the brain watching the hands work…I had none of that in my life!”
Pauley claims to be a bad golfer and a terrible watercolorist. Her three children are grown and she has grandkids “only in my imagination.” She travels frequently and is working on a proposal to recast “Your Life Calling” in book form. She has always been more oriented toward the future than the present, she said.
So, where will Jane Pauley be in 10 years?
“Helping peple see themselves in powerful, positive new ways,” she reiterated. “And, I hope, making pottery.”
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
