“Getting Wiser with Age?”
Stell Simonton first stepped into the door of the First Existentialist Congregation after moving to Atlanta in the mid-1980s. She’s been a member for many years.
Since 2013, she’s worked as a freelance journalist in Atlanta, writing frequently about youth development and the various nonprofits that help young people thrive. Her work has appeared in Youth Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, Georgia Health News and other publications. She previously worked for 19 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Bill Moyers once wrote something to the effect that a journalist enjoys the license to be educated in public — that journalism is really a continuing education course. It’s a free pass to ask questions.
To Stell, the process of questioning can involve a delightful skepticism (sometimes an adolescent in-your-face approach) but it also encourages a reflectiveness that can come from walking in someone else’s shoes. Since she is turning 65 this year, she’s reflecting on old age, particularly what Carl Jung has to say about the second half of life. Hence the topic of the Sept. 5 presentation: “Getting Wiser with Age?”
Stell lives with her husband, Wade Marbaugh, in Atlanta. Their two daughters, Anna Simonton and Olivia Simonton, were raised in the First Existentialist Congregation.