Have you ever wondered where all the
mid-life crises come from? I figure it has to be a recent phenomena.
I mean, how often did you hear about a turn-of-the-century farmer
shaving the family mule into something rakish and ambling off into
the sunset to find himself?
According to Wikipedia, the term was
first used in 1965 (the 60s—why am I not surprised?) as a time
“where adults come to realize their own mortality and how much time
is left in their life.” Some attribute the concept to Carl Jung,
while others say it all goes back to Freud.
Most often, a mid-life crisis includes
making significant changes—career, work-life balance, marriage,
romantic relationship, large expenditures or physical appearance.
Reassessing your goals and priorities from a more mature perspective
sounds like a good idea, doesn't it? So why does “a mid-life
crisis” smack of selfishness and immaturity?
Much as we enjoy laughing at the old
dude in the hot red sports car chasing a long-faded youth, research
shows about 10% of 40 – 60 years-olds have a true psychological
crisis.
The rest? Well, maybe it's best described as overwhelmed by
one too many of life's daily stressors.
It seems the Western culture of youth
may play a role in the situation and that it hits men longer and
harder than women. I can't help but wonder if part of that statistic
is due to the age of the study—the 80s--when fewer women were far
enough along in their careers to have big regrets...but I digress.
In For Love or Money, Holly
Price's dad followed the all too typical pattern—dumped his spouse,
walked away from career and responsibility, and basically did
whatever he wanted, without thinking about the impact on the people
affected by his decisions.
Ouch. That was harsh.
How about: Holly's dad questioned the life choices he made and the validity of decisions he made years before.
Either way, Holly took a sabbatical
from her career and came home to run the family business, staging it
to sell. The last thing she expected was to face her own career
choices and have to deal with her own emotional baggage—a six-foot
hunk of testosterone, AKA her former fiance--and a friend's murder.
So what about you? Are you ready to toss in the towel and try something else? Know someone who got trashed in the wreckage of a mate's crisis? Or is it all a pipe-dream?
For Love or Money recently released by Entangled Publishing and is available at online outlets.
