Bill and Melinda Gates at Mid, Essay Example

Bill and Melinda Gates are not your average couple. As they move, full swing, through their mid-life years, they know blessings and options that do not exist for most families. A typical person their age (Bill, 54 & Melinda, 45) is working to pay off a mortgage, raise a family, make ends meet, and make car payments, while Bill and Melinda are working even harder to put their hard-earned money to work for others. The Gates family, billionaires, is doing what only a select few people ever have the chance to do. They are making their dreams come true for the world.

Their foundation has committed grant money, now totaling 23 billion dollars, to more than 100 countries in addition to our own, in the areas of global development, global healthcare, and for domestic issues of various kinds (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2010). In July of 2008, Gates stepped away from Microsoft, the company that he founded that made him the richest man on planet Earth. Now, he and Melinda travel the world, putting much of their money to work as the battle disease, poverty, and all things that would challenge education (Bartiromo, 2009). He is now enjoying his “encore” career, which many define as a less stressful job that fulfills personal interests (CQ Editors, 2009).

For many people who realize, at mid-life that a lifetime is half spent, feelings of doubt and anxiety creep in to cause them psychological discomfort (Weaver, 2009). Happily, it does not have to be that way. According to theorist Erik Erikson, at mid life a person’s radius of care “expands from an intimate other to encompass concerns about contributing to future generations. These contributions may be oriented toward the production of lasting physical objects or toward the care and maintenance of other human beings” (Peterson & Stewart, 1996, p. 21).

Some have described a mid-life shift, when adults begin to pout themselves first. In an odd way, the Gates are putting themselves first –their interests, that is. Without any of the things, like debt retirement or saving for children’s college educations to worry about, Bill and Melinda Gates are free to spend the rest of their lives promoting the worthy causes that people present to them and the challenging “big picture” ideas that they have for our planet. It is a beautiful thing to see philanthropic efforts coming form those who could more easily spend on self and care for self-improving interests. The Gates are trying to raise their children as normally as is possible for people whose every move creates media curiosity.

References

Bartiromo, M. (2009). Melinda and Bill Gates on Making a Difference. Business Week, 16 Feb, 4119.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2010). Foundation fact sheet. Retrieved 22 April 2010 from http://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/foundation-fact-sheet.aspx

Editors. (2009). Encore careers beckon many after retirement. CQ Researcher, 19(23), 562-563.

Peterson, B., & Stewart, A. (1996). Antecedents and contexts of generativity motivation at midlife. Psychology & Aging, 11(1), 21-33.

Weaver, Y. (2009). Mid-life –a time of crisis or new possibilities? The Journal of the Society of  Existential Analysis, 20(1), 69-78.