We have all seen the TV shows about it and laughed at the jokes. We have even seen it. The paunchy guy with little hair and thick glasses sitting behind the wheel of a BMW Z3 coup. The corvette that zips by you being driven by some nerdy looking guy. Or the dock shoes, no socks, white Levis and blazer worn by the 56 year old with a blond on his arm who isn’t his daughter.
How did the mid-life crisis (MLC) become a joke? Was it because it looked funny – all the old guys trying to act like young studs? Or is it deeper. We make jokes and point at other because it is such a painful subject?
Jokes aside, the MLC is a hugely spiritual happening. Maybe the word "crisis" is the problem. It evokes the feeling of an emergency that was unplanned. Like a hurricane that comes out of no where and destroys the town.
So what if it’s a real bona fide stage of development? A real passage in life? What if we all go thru it just like we all go thru the experience of being shocked at looking in the mirror and seeing an old man when we still feel the same as we did at 16? That picture not fitting the experience is a mid life crisis.
The panic that something is wrong makes it a crisis. The idea we are doing something wrong, that life has gone wrong and that we are losing at life all make it a crisis.
Wow! Well said! The author of this gem is a man named Dave Schoof, who refers to the feelings of "something missing" that men have at midlife as "the disquiet". Dave has a website called The Disquiet, which looks interesting.
1 comment:
Thanks for the kind words Ginger. And keep on writing - we need yoiur voice! I like your posts.
It's pretty easy to link up to Life Two. You can start your own posts there and link back to your blog here. And they are very welcoming of resources. Come on over - the water's fine :-)
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