Reinvention stories are a common theme in literature. Jane Eyre refuses to let her difficult past define her, ultimately creating a life of dignity and self-respect. In The Great Gatsby we witness Jay Gatsby’s transformation highlighting both the allure and illusion of self-reinvention, questioning whether we can truly escape our past. Dickens gives us the ultimate reinvention story in Great Expectations. Pip’s journey is not just about changing his external circumstances; it’s about discovering who he truly is and learning to value the right things. His transformation is both a physical shift (new environment, education, social class) and a psychological one (self-awareness, humility, and integrity).

Look back over your life and you will see you have had to reinvent yourself multiple times. Starting school, and finishing school; getting a job, and leaving a job; falling in love, and failing at love. Each experience is an opportunity for reinvention. What we choose to hold on to and what we select as excess baggage that can be left behind refines anddefines the narrative that we take with us in the transformation process. What Tom offers us in this episode is a beautiful, contemplative reflection on the reinvention at play as we age and choose to become an elder and not just older.

Tom Verghese’s life has blossomed from his dynamism and curiosity. An immigrant to Australia 44 years ago his professional arena has been about diversity, inclusion and traversing cross cultural intersections. His interests are in conscious aging, and he shares with us how he is experimenting with placing himself in new locations –geographically, socially, and emotionally. He is very interested in keeping an elastic mindset that can stretch and transform its thinking habits and support him in guiding his life into new spaces where he will continue to grow and indulge himself in his true passion: learning.

We meet Tom in his liminal space. That messy in-between state where we are no longer who we used to be and not yet the person we will become. We are experimenting with possibilities. The genius we need to imbibe in liminality helps us hold all parts of life and our identity lightly. We can let the definitions ascribed to us by life, the past roles we performed, the relationship patterns repeatedly played out and our previous preferences move on like clouds shape shifting in the sky.

What Tom offers us is this alluring idea that aging is aspirational. As we age, we can enjoy more freedoms, be more choiceful, feel looser and show up in kinder and wiser ways. Tom got me thinking about how to make my aging story a good story and to think about how I can contribute to making lives better. How are you going to reinvent yourself?