VII. Stages of Life

The tension between our attempts to develop a sense of agency by rendering the world controllable (proactive mode), on the one hand, and our yearning for a life in which we let things happen and take everything as it comes (reactive mode), on the other, is reflected in our different modes of dealing with key stages of life. These are (1) birth, (2) child-rearing and education, (3) life planning, relationships, and careers, (4) the digitalization of our relationship to the world, (5) ageing and elder care, and (6) death. Our key stages of life can be understood in terms of ‘existential milestones’, which, while shaping our relationship to the world in a profound manner, are pervaded by the conflict between controllability and uncontrollability.