‘Forty-one and nothing done’: who’s undergoing a mid-life crisis? Years spent doing my job and all I’ve got to look forward to is my pension. You think I’m depressed.? I am. You think I’m letting it get to me? I am. You think one of my symptom’s is that I get about on my Bonneville rather than a buggy? You’re right.’
‘Teenagers don’t have all the problems. The problems just get worse Our first job promised a sparkling future with possibilities galore. Then we discovered that a career is one thing after another. Routine rules. It saves us from having to make serious decisions all day long. We do the expected thing. That’s not easy. We want a repeat of the shoes or the dog-biscuits we’ve relied on and we find they’re not made any more.
‘What can I do about it?’ Take an Open University degree, you say. Start building a model railway. Get busy with shed-art. Wood-carving is a good option. they tell me. When did you last read a book, they say, and Bill Bryson is just the thing for the fading 45-year-old.
‘But I don’t want people to suggest hobbies for me. I know there’s nothing like rebuilding a mini so that Issigonis wouldn’t recognise it. That would at least take me all my time and make it easy to say, ’Sorry, I’m busy’ when the next person has a bright idea.
‘Join a church? I’m a bit confused about this. I was baptized (I think) as a baby at the font so I suppose I am a member already. That’s all water under the bridge, anyhow. I’ve gone through the Marxist stage and the left of centre earnest period and I’ve backed minority lobby groups until I look like a lobby coat-peg. But it’s all no more than a puff of wind.
‘Show me a church where the Golden Rule dictates the agenda and maybe I’ll listen to what you say. What was that? We do our best but Christianity can never win in the allure stakes. Come back tomorrow. Or better: come back when I’m 64.’
That’s what I heard him say. Are there many out there saying the same thing?
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