The Seeds Of The Male Mid-Life Crisis

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the mid-life crisis. God knows there's been enough jokes about them. The idea that a 35-45-year-old-man will snap one day and come hom in red convertible even though it's incredibly impractical to his by-now family life, the idea that he'll divrce his wife of twenty or so years and try his luck with girls half his age, the increible feeling of dissatisfaction.

And where does it come from? Does every guy have this to look forward to?

I don't think so. I actually think that the problem isn't as wide-spread as we are led to believe. I also have a way to cure it in future generations and a little insider-info on what causes it (according to me).

The quarterback who won the Super Bowl this year is 27. That's three years older than me. Patrick Stump, singer and leader of the multi-million ablum selling band Fall Out Boy is one year YOUNGER than me.

It's greatness that causes the crisis.

A guy can look around and see people about his age aspire to - and achieve - greatness, while he just kind of fades. He doesn't fade away, he's still very much there, but life isn't as he expected it to be. As he gets older, more and more people that are younger than him are rising to greatness, running multi-billion dollar companies, being famous rock stars, winning the Super Bowl, living out HIS dreams and he was always told that he could be great too.

Here's the cure. Parents, if you don't want your kid to suffer a mid-life crisis (which I don't think is a terrible thing, just something that needs to be addressed correctly and worked through like any other emotion or fit of depression especially) don't even tell them that they can be great. Don't ever say they can be the next Stephen King, John Elway, Eddie Van Halen, or Albert Einstein.

Of course they COULD be the next one and I am ALL for telling your kids that while they have infinite potential, maybe they need to realize that though they want it, though they DESPERATELY want it, they might not get it. It isn't in the stars for everyone.

Because kids do have potential, and I say go ahead and tell them that they could be great but don't just put their head in the clouds.

Imagine an empty landscape and one man stands alone in the middle of this landscape. It's flat, with nothing going on. He's the biggest thing around.

Now imagine skyscrapers ERUPTING from the ground and the landscape chnaging with blurring speed to something very similar to Manhattan. That's a mid life crisis right there. That guy who was the only thing around is now the smallest thing around.

That's pretty sad, right?

It's a sad emotion.