I'm pretty sure the word crisis is too harsh to describe my deal. In my thesaurus, synonyms are catastrophe, calamity, emergency and disaster. My midlife is far from that.
Perhaps the term "midlife crisis" needs to go and be replaced with midlife change or midlife shift or midlife improvement.
As I just turned 50, I understand how we live in such a youth-centered culture. Yeah, ads on the Internet might be tailored for me, but aren't a lot of my hobbies, like watching sports for example, celebrations of youth?
My childhood isn't even in my rear-view mirror any more, and I have many, many important adult memories behind me. I'm feeling a sense of "it's now or never." I need to live the genuine life I want to live now while I can enjoy it.
After visiting Sophie in Berkeley, I've become inspired to have more of a college state of mind. When I was in college at the Ohio State University, I remember feeling that it was a time for discovery. I would take classes in whatever interested me and constantly meet new people. It was pretty fun and ed-u-ma-ca-tion-al.
So much of the world, and so many subjects, have been left untapped by me that it's time to explore some new interests. Now or never. There is a whole world of things, such as plants, trees, insects, that I hardly know anything about. It's time to explore some new stuff. The world is full of wonder; it is wonderful.
In all reality, women have it much harder at this age with their change, but bros — or at least this bro — experience something as well. It's official that I can't do everything as well physically as I used. If I sprint, I'd likely feel that for days. Last month, I did a Chloe Ting workout with my daughter Chloe Stevens. Part of that entailed 100 jumping jacks. I did 75 of them and was sore for days.
I used to do random dance challenges with my daughters, and I stopped doing that. I've been retired from my high school's student-faculty game for years, and I no longer go for runs. But, honestly, by playing golf, bike riding and hiking, I'm not really missing, or lamenting, turning down the dial on hardcore exercise.
So I've been doing light yoga, and I've been trying to get in touch with my feelings. Imagine that! Dina tells me that I'm becoming too "woo-woo," but I kind of like this 50-year-old woo-woo version of myself.
I'm being careful not to confuse my age and experience with certainty. We humans likely are walking contradictions. Yes, we have the ability to do some incredible things, but on the other hand, we are so limited with our perspectives and the scopes of our lives.
Yeah, I can consider myself a sophisticated gentleman for having done some travel, reading voraciously, being open-minded and battling against our 21st century consumer culture. But still, what do I really know?
It's time to open up my eyes, and heart, to the world and continually see the glory and wonder of what we call life — or in my case, woo-woo life.
