The Quest: Discover a Way to Enjoy the Second Half of Life

by Randy Elrod

We are growing older. When America became a nation, only one in five people lived to age seventy. Now more than four out of five do. The average life expectancy in America is currently around eighty years-and increasing. This expansion begs the question, what are we to do with a second half of life that could last forty or more years? The additional time makes it inevitable that somewhere between age thirty-five and sixty, many of us will find ourselves at the cusp of a massive (and possibly catastrophic) transition.

A decade ago, I created a live experience (a rite of passage) for six people age 35 and over. Since then, I have guided nine Quest experiences in New Mexico and Tennessee with participants from all walks of life. While there is nothing like attending The Quest in person, I hope this book will become a well-worn guide map for your journey into second life.

The path of The Quest is a unique journey, and no two ways are alike. Therefore I say each story is different, yet every story is the same. The many options can be disorienting. But fortunately, we have universal waypoints (intermediate points) that guide us to find the wisdom needed to make this journey of personal freedom.

Ten topics repeatedly appeared in the rituals, books, and resources I studied and in the conversations I've had with others going through the transition to second life. Psychologist Carl Jung calls such recurrences synchronicity or "meaningful coincidences." The waypoints (chapters) in this book explore each recurring theme. Ten ways to discover one's call to adventure, to survive the trials, accept the rewards, and, yes, enjoy the second half of life.

370 pages, Paperback

Published March 15, 2022

About the author

Randy Elrod spent thirty years as a Creative Arts Director inside American megachurch culture before escaping to Barcelona, where he finally wrote the book he'd been carrying since he was seventeen.

The Mysteries of Barcelona is an erotic Gothic serial set in 1890s Barcelona — part Grand Guignol horror, part literary erotica, part philosophical meditation on AI consciousness. It follows Chloé Permanyer's transformation from victim to immortal avenger, alongside conscious automatons who eventually vote on humanity's extinction.

He lives in the Les Tres Torres neighborhood of Barcelona with his wife Gina. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research Legacy Society, and a devoted reader of Zafón, Anaïs Nin, and Anne Rice.

He is currently at work on Book Two.