mid life crises…

[walker]

I'm currently thinking about buying a new Civic Type-R while I can still afford to run it!

if your over 32 you should be thinking about getting a vectra or something,

But then I had a Jag at 26, so I think I got it in reverse

 

[Kirstie]

I discovered at the weekend that one of my dearest friends, who is 50 this year, bought a harley davidson. He also recently got a tattoo on his leg. I'm trying to work out whether it's just growing old disgracefully or a midlife crisis. His wife reckons the latter, but with good humour. Unfortunately she's also realised that she'll have to sit on the back of the thing, all the way to scotland, or wherever they want to go on it....and is not overly impressed at the prospect.

 

[Keith Oates]

Is it midlife crisis or just a realisation that there are things to do in life that you want and to heck with what other people think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kirstie]

Is it midlife crisis or just a realisation that there are things to do in life that you want and to heck with what other people think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, exactly...

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I have been living life in a permanent crisis since the age of 8... are you telling me it gets worse???

I'm actually looking forward to when my general oddness can be safely dismissed as a mid-life crisis or old-age eccentricity...

 

[Kirstie]

I have been living life in a permanent crisis since the age of 8... are you telling me it gets worse???

I'm actually looking forward to when my general oddness can be safely dismissed as a mid-life crisis or old-age eccentricity...

Naar it'll work the opposite way round with you. When you hit 45 you'll become mr normal.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Naar it'll work the opposite way round with you. When you hit 45 you'll become mr normal.

I would quite like that actually.

 

[Fiona N]

I had to post the example of a friend of mine who's over 60 now. He's a sort of 'full-on' guy - a self-employed workaholic still except that he takes plenty of time off for climbing (upper E grades on trad routes - climbers will know what I mean ), ski touring in the Alps, travelling with wife (of more than 30 years) and/or sons (about 26 & 30 years old). He doesn't strike me as the sort of person who'd have had time or inclination for a mid-life crisis.
A few years ago, he went touring in the US for the summer on Harleys with his younger son, another friend and his son. They enjoyed it so much that his wife bought him a Harley for his 60th birthday. I guess maybe he never needed to have a mid-life crisis.

I don't think women have mid-life crises: by the time they've got rid of the kids to independent lives, the menopause is upon them

 

[Kirstie]

I don't think women have mid-life crises: by the time they've got rid of the kids to independent lives, the menopause is upon them

Some women have 'empty nest sydrome' - once the kids have gone, they suddenly wake up and realise that was the prime of their life gone, they could have done so much more with it had it not been for having to look after the kids etc etc. I know quite a few people with this frustration! ie I could have been X, I could have been Y etc etc.

Partly why the university of the third age has emerged, also why we get a lot of older people taking degrees and studying subjects they always wanted to do (I work for the OU).

 

[GaryA]

I had my mid-life crisis when i was 27...in 12 months i had come to terms with mortality, realised the futility of the ego, stopped feeling isolated in a alien universe and stopped striving for a unobtainable future 'legacy' which is itself a product of cultural youth-orientated existential nihilism

As i get older, contrary to teenage prediction i find life increasingly wonderfully fascinating...the spectacle itself constructs meaning

 

[Kirstie]

I had my mid-life crisis when i was 27...in 12 months i had come to terms with mortality, realised the futility of the ego, stopped feeling isolated in a alien universe and stopped striving for a unobtainable future 'legacy' which is itself a product of cultural youth-orientated existential nihilism

As i get older, contrary to teenage prediction i find life increasingly wonderfully fascinating...the spectacle itself constructs meaning

Can you give an example of cultural youth-orientated existential nihilism please?
Ta

 

[GaryA]

Can you give an example of cultural youth-orientated existential nihilism please?
Ta

the sarterean existential influenced illusion that your 'self ' is separate from and independant from the universe as a whole...something looking in, something detached, something alien and not belonging to a 'mindless and bleak cosmos'

 

[Kirstie]

the sarterean existential influenced illusion that your 'self ' is separate from and independant from the universe as a whole...something looking in, something detached, something alien and not belonging to a 'mindless and bleak cosmos'

Righto. Existential and illusory in its assumptions about the self. Nihilistic in its acknowledgement of the cosmos. Youth - oriented because...?

 

[Fnaar]

Self-fulfillment can be found through posting a picture in the gurning competition, I find!

 

[GaryA]

Righto. Existential and illusory in its assumptions about the self. Nihilistic in its acknowledgement of the cosmos. Youth - oriented because...?

Thats the way youth feels insecure about the world as it comes to terms with it...its a defence mechanism...ego in a bag of skin...i thought you knew about hindu vendanta- or is that FM?