ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a refreshingly readable introduction to human development from birth to death. The speech of adolescents resembles a slightly rusty tap suddenly turned full on: their words come out in rapid, intermittent bursts, their laughter, unnecessarily loud, has a forced quality to it. By middle adulthood, speech flows more smoothly, and laughter is more wholehearted; we 'own ourselves', and the words that come out of the mouths reflect that ownership. Even individuals who have spent most of their adulthood denying their emotional roots sometimes find it possible in old age to complete their lives in ways they would never have dreamed possible earlier. The heroic journeys of young adulthood in which we proved our selfhood and asserted our independence are now balanced by emotional and spiritual pilgrimages back to the personal or collective past. Humans fear death, in part, because they have invested so heavily in a personal self, and a personal consciousness.
