Interesting that the phrase “mid life crisis” didn’t enter the vernacular until as recent as 1970. This is because mid life crises typically happen around age 40 and require a 70-80 year life span if not more and until recently people didn’t live that long. The two things that have arisen most prominently out of the twentieth century for the developed world are longer life and recreational time. Even for the wealthy in the 1700s there was no weekend at the Hamptons or Spring Break in Cabo. Life happened slower.
Now it’s to the point that life does not happen fast enough and once we’ve raced to success and stability at 40 we’re suddenly confronted with our impending mortality and certain dissatisfactions of pleasure. A mid life crisis is just one more term for disillusionment.
And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I’ve seen a number of my peers including myself undergo a similar disillusionment in a kind of (to steal John Mayer’s term from “Why Georgia”) “quarter life crisis” including bouts with depression, loss of desire for schooling and/or work, increasingly nihlistic and pleasure seeking attitudes and results all too often in a bitter cynicism and resentment that tries its very best to avoid being a vulnerable, sentimental human being.
It often seems like every day is a battle until I get back into bed. I find I prefer going to sleep every night compared to waking up every morning. Is this normal? I mean it’s not like most people prefer being dead to being alive. Is being asleep a cherished commodity because it feels better or because it happens twice as less? Doesn’t it seem so unfair that we forget the moment of our birth but our last memory in life is our death? I try not to think about these things too much.
They will always wait for you, the very best of them get better with time, and, if you’re very lucky, you find yourself unable to shut up about them.
Saul Williams ;said the shotgun to the head
Here’s a clip of the first single off Born and Raised, called “Shadow Days.” I’m excited to share the first bit of sound from the album… Been looking forward to a post like this since October 14, 2010, the first day I started writing this group of songs. Enjoy.
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….ahem
I approve.
Two sets of sunglasses. Seems legit.