Do you want to see a midlife crisis in action, then watch the news this morning and see what happened in Covina, California on Christmas eve!
Forty-five year old Bruce Pardo decided he couldn’t take it anymore after a bad divorce and then job loss. So he went over to his in-laws’ house and started shooting with a gun and a flame-thrower!
Need any more proof that midlife is a very tough time to negotiate? We have an international study showing that the mid-40s is the worst time in every country in the world for clinical depression.
We have a recent Center for Disease Control study showing that suicides are rising dramatically among 45 to 55 year olds, and we have stories like this in the news. Need more proof that this is a problem we should all be paying attention to?
I am particularly mad about this situation because I tried once again last week to convince my local newspaper that there truly is a story in what’s happening with Americans in midlife right now.
They blew me off as usual! Interestingly, the young reporter I sent it to found it to be an important story, but the older editor Sara Hansen (a woman obviously in midlife herself!) decided it was totally unnewsworthy.
Perhaps it is a simple case that those that are successful in midlife don’t want to acknowledge what’s happening with those of us that are not. “Who wants to think about those poor losers who got divorced or lost their job recently. They must have somehow deserved their fate.“ Perhaps we all feel this way to some extent until it happens to us.
I just find it strange that I have acquired an international following with this blog, and almost 45,000 views, and yet a local editor can find no story of interest to her readership!
I think I see why newspapers are going out of business now…
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Laura,
I suspect there are a number of reasons newspapers are struggling. Not publishing your articles might not one of them!
So, many don’t care to look at Life that closely in case it is sneaking up on them? Who said “an unexamined Life is not worth living”? Is ignorance truly bliss?
I was fully invested in the “American Dream” until I was 45. My marriage collapsed, my sweetheart died, my daughter was picked up by the police, my son was injured during a visit and I was fired from a 6 year position just before the holidays. It took many years to dig out from under that one. My Life has changed dramatically since then. My sense of self worth and understanding of Life has grown by leaps and bounds. So much of what I was so concerned about then seems so inconsequential now. It seems to be a natural progression of Life from the secular to the Spiritual.
The view is so much larger from this side of the mountain!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Brad
Thanks for your comments Brad…rumor has it that you just had a birthday.
If so, hope it was happy! Laura Lee
Hi LL,
Thanks for the birthday wish. It was very quiet, just myself and two 4 legged friends (Frankie & Rufus).
So, I just started reading a book by Jeff Wickwire titled “Friendships, Avoiding the ones that hurt, Finding the ones that Heal” and soon came across this quote from James 4:4 “So beware! If you make the world your friend, you will be pulled away from God’s best for your life through unwise attractions and attachments. It is entirely possible to harbor excessive affection for the world that hinders your walk with God.”
Might this journey be about balance? I see it in my Life and the Lives of my children.
Travel Well!
Brad
Hi Laura,
Unfortunately this age group is also the one with the highest increase in suicide rates.
I don’t think newspapers are interested in preventative information. They are intersted in anything that creates a frenzy of sales.
If a few more of these sort of things happen, then the papers will be intereted. Have you had a chat to your local radio station? Sometimes they are more approachable.
Not only is midlife a testing time, but with the recession, it’s middleclass midlifers who will feel the pinch first and hardest. I heard recently that there have already been I think 250,000 jobs lost in the USA, and its early days.
An English man came into work the other day tellling me that one transport company had put off 4000 people. He didn’t work for that company, but he was a truck driver, very concerned very concerned about his own position.
There isn’t too much visual evidence of the recession here in Australia yet, but there is a lot of angst.
I’ve seen segments on Oprah on the joys of midlife, and similar articles in magazines over the last couple of years of my own midlife crisis, and wandered, whether these people are just truly blessed, or totally ignorant.
Midlife for many people is not an easy time. To me its the real growing up. It’s reality slapping me in the face and saying open your eyes and have a really good look.
What you do with what you see is what is important. You keep on doing what you’re doing Laura. Through your blog and now your book you’ve been of interest and value to some 45000 viewers.