This is the Second Half

“In the second half of life, humans reunite with the human race.”
—Carl Jung

Steph Wilbur Ash and Geoff Herbach are about to change American culture as we know it with their new project, The Second Half. It’s a live show, a blog, a community—it’s a movement. It’s like Scientology without all the weird stuff about aliens. It’s like psychotherapy without the billable hours, and within the semi-anonymous comfort of a group. It’s like self-help, but without all the shame of buying self-help products.

The Second Half is about being a smart, helpful, “human” human being—yes, a grownup, and it’s built on the Jungian premise that once we human beings are done with that rebellious process of becoming an individual we embark on “the second half” of our lives, which are devoted to community, spirituality, and common good.

Geoff and Steph are grownups. They have “come of age”. It was really hard.

Their friends Molly Priesmeyer and Dennis Cass have come of age too.

None of them want to do it again.

But they are painfully aware that as grownups they are no longer a part of American Youth Culture, which largely drives American Culture and is currently filled with hooking up, extended and painful adolescence, and the search for “self” within a contemporary, Seinfeldian meaninglessness. (Or its religious dogma opposite.)

Steph and Geoff don’t want any of that stuff. They want community, and culture, and fellowship. They want good music that speaks to their fully human selves, and movies and novels and poetry too. They want guidance, and discourse, and genuine, affirming, nonsexual hugs of comfort from family, friends, and strangers alike.

So they are on a quest to find and deliver this—grownup, second half living—living room to living room, person to person, bed to bed-and-breakfast. They want to see people reading original poetry to each other. They want to hear neighbors talking to each other about the meaning of life without evangelizing. They want to sing along to that song you wrote that is not about young love or young heartache, but rather about wonderful grownup love.

Please.

The Second Half Show

One manifestation of The Second Half movement is The Second Half Show, a live, themed variety show for those who have already “come of age” and are now interested in learning how to better live the second half of their lives.

Produced and hosted by Geoff and Steph, the show will include songs, stories, poems, and skits from the Twin Cities best grownup artists and intellectuals; original research that is entertaining and insightful and maybe a little weird; and advice from real experts who know what they’re talking about. They will provide important answers to such grownup questions as:

• How many drinks can I drink and still be a healthy human being?
• How much time should I spend with my children to be a good parent?
• How do I talk to other people about God without looking like a weirdo?
• How do I have responsible, grownup relationships with my exes?
• How do I simultaneously learn to cook and stop stuffing my face at McDonald’s?
• What exactly are the benefits of yoga, aside from the cool pants?
• What is a bed-and-breakfast stay all about, and are we really allowed to have sex there?
• Why does British Romantic Comedy feel so good?

The show is to be performed live and recorded for posterity. (That’s just the kind of thing a grownup would do, isn’t it? Consider posterity.) Like the movement itself, we hope The Second Half Show will reach people who are ready to stop coming of age and start living as a grownup.

We are out there. We are with you on this. We will help you.

Love,
Steph and Geoff