Because I was born in 1963, I qualify as a bottom-of-the-barrel "baby boomer" (a person born between 1946 and 1964). I'm not ready to make a post-workforce transition or second-half of life vocational shift, but I'm watching my elders who are.

In Sunday's Washington Post, there was an article by Marc Freedman – founder of Civic Ventures – called " No Country for Old People?" (playing off the title of Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel and the Coen brothers' current movie). Freedman writes:

Millions of boomers are headed not for endless vacation but for a new stage of work, driven both by the desire to remain productive and the need to make ends meet over longer life spans. In the next decade, the number of workers over 55 will grow at more than five times the rate of the overall workforce, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projected last month. That could mean the biggest transformation of work and the workforce in the U.S. since women broke through to new roles decades ago.

One of the people Freedman profiles is Rev. Sally Bingham, who decided in her mid-40's to become an Episcopal priest. Sojourners ran an interview with Sally May-June 2002. (See Preaching God's Green Gospel). She now runs The Regeneration Project, a San Francisco nonprofit that's leading a religious response to global warming.

As Christians, we know that "vocation" starts with baptism and ends when God calls us home. (See We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For by Jim Wallis) We don't "retire" in the market capitalism sense. We have seasons of different kinds of work responding to different aspects of God's call on our lives. Because we believe in the inherent dignity of each human being, we do not define people by whether or not they are wage-earners, but by how they are serving the common good and God's New Creation.

However, we also need adequate social policies that allow people a moderate dignified life where they can still contribute to social needs even when they are no longer part of the mainstream work force. Freedman says:

By helping millions in search of both money and meaning find work that realizes their aspirations, our society can turn the necessity of longer working lives into a genuine virtue. By establishing better routes to significant "encore careers," as I've come to call them, we can reinvest the baby boomers' huge pool of human capital in areas where it's most needed.

Is it time for a "GI Bill" that supports first-wave boomers - the largest, healthiest, best-educated and longest-living generation in American history - in "common good" second careers or later-in-life vocations such as teaching, nursing, civil service, or work in the non-profit sector? Maybe this is a question we can put to the current presidential candidates. Their ages range from 47 to 78. With the exception of McCain, Gavel, and Paul, they are all "boomers" on a major career track.

Rose Marie Berger, a Sojourners associate editor, is a Catholic peace activist and poet.