Watersheds

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Koch presents several narratives by or about people who have experienced
a “defining adult crisis,” and goes on to analyze these in the broad
context of the individual functioning as a part of community and
society.

The crises selected for inclusion are sufficiently significant to shape
lives. All involve loss—of health, of employment, of identity. A
common thread is the loss of the defined role the individual in crisis
plays in the lives of others, so that they, too, experience a crisis:
when a parent requires constant care, role reversal occurs, with the
child “parenting” the parent; the person whose spouse has a terminal
illness ceases to fill the traditional role of spouse and becomes a
care-giver.

Through seven life-crisis stories, Koch explores the various ways
people change in response to the life-shaping events they must deal
with. He then moves outside the specific examples to discuss these
changes as they reflect the way Canadian society deals with such ethical
issues as child abuse, abortion, and assisted suicide. He presents a
juxtaposition of individual rights and freedoms against a view of
reality that says we are not discrete individuals but rather “communal
beings”: “... we are who we love and live with over time.” We live
in a shared world, he argues, and all decisions on life and death must
be shared. We cannot talk about taking Granny off life support as being
strictly an issue involving what is best for Granny, because she does
not exist as an individual. As part of our shared world, Granny must be
governed by what is best both for her “community” (family and
friends) and for the broader society in which she lives.

The work is a readable, thought-provoking discussion-starter for those
seeking order and meaning in a society undergoing rapid change.