A Map to the End of Time: Wayfarings with Friends and Philosophers

I stumbled on this book in the university bookstore and was fascinated from the first pages. Mannheimer does a beautiful job illuminating the ideas of philosophers through the stories of older people he has met. I was particularly taken with Uncle Joe, whose musings at a bar mitvah on the sources of laughter were delightful and profound. If you are looking for an entertaining, gentle, and thoughtful read filled with wonderful characters -- this is the book for you.

When it comes to bookstores and libraries, I'm a browser and a grazer-always looking for and often finding serendipitously that book I can't put down until I've read it cover-to-cover. Ron Manheimer's "A Map to the End of Time" is one of those finds! Recognizing the author's name from our professional connections in gerontology and adult education, I picked the book off the "New Non-Fiction" shelf at a favorite bookstore where I can read and have my Saturday morning latte and scone at the same time. By the time the last scone crumb was devoured, I was hooked on this book. Over the next few days, I found I could hardly put it down and, when I came to the last page, I immediately turned back to the first page and started reading it again. Then, I began to ask what it is about this book that captured me. Part of the answer is the conversational style that allows me to think of what I would ask and say in conversations with Ron's "wayfaring friends and philosophers" -Ron opens the door and invites the reader in as a participant. Even more compelling is how this author carries the reader along on his shoulder as he journeys through his own search for answers to his own questions about the meaning, tasks, and new opportunities of old age. Through his own search, then, Ron role models how a philosophical perspective enriches both the journey and the search. Because he continues to ask new questions or rephrase those previously asked, he encourages readers to explore their own path with their own questions. Instead of an abstract and erudite discipline, this book has helped me learn how to use philosophy as a tool in my personal search for the meaning of my own aging and to think about what it is that I want to do and am meant to do as I take my own journey into the land of old age. (C. Joanne Grabinski, President, AgeEd)

A conversational look at how and why older people look at life's key issues differently than younger people. Ron Manheimer is a trained philosopher who began teaching philosophy to retired people and became fascinated by their perspective on the key issues with which philosophers have busied themselves over the centuries. This is philosophy for the layman at it's best, because it ties abstract ideas and theories to real people and their personal experiences. It is almost as if one were taking one of Ron's classes with him - he describes his students personalities and histories and then gives you their interchange in the classes he taught. But the book is more about the evolution of his own thinking on aging and how increasing experience can change one's perspective on TRUTH. The shortfall of the book is that Ron may try to do too much - we get to know some of his students and then they disappear as he embarks on his own journey and then we find ourselves in another class with different students 20 years later. He is trying to cover a lot of ideas and does it easily and well - using his various classes and experiences as backdrops upon which to paint his picture. Some times I could have stayed longer in one setting before he moved on. But I really enjoyed the book and am buying a copy for my mother in law who would have been a great character in this book. It is clear Ron Manheimer loves his subject and the people and ideas he writes about - that love comes out in his book.