Sunday Reveries: Crisis Point
"Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a very long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story."
-Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
The funny thing about looking middle age in the eyes was Murphy wasn’t worried. Okay, she was nearing forty, had been doing the same job her whole and lived alone but it wasn’t like she hadn’t done anything in between. She had done at lot of things with her life, a lot of the things you were "supposed" to do.
She had been married, admittedly only for three years and it had ended in divorce but she had done it. There were people her age who hadn't done that. She had a kid during those three years, a daughter who she loved and adored. There were people out there who didn't have that. Not only was she successful, she was good at her job. There weren't many female Lieutenants in the world and she was going to make Captain if it killed her.
She had a nice little house in a nice little suburb and a best friend who while frustrating honestly cared about her. She was friends in all walks of life and sometimes she even managed to have a boyfriend and date.
Yeah, she had done a lot with her life. The looming presence of the big four-oh was not that scary but… it was a little unsatisfying. Sometimes she worked a little too long, stayed in the office just a little too late and when she went home her house was just a little too quiet. She often felt like she didn’t get enough time with her daughter and she really hated her ex - who was getting remarried.
There was just this vague sense of dissatisfaction sometimes when she bothered to examine where she had ended up. Luckily, it was only sometimes and she didn’t really spend that much time on self-examination.
It was only a mid-life crisis, she had a whole half of a life left to get over it.
-Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
The funny thing about looking middle age in the eyes was Murphy wasn’t worried. Okay, she was nearing forty, had been doing the same job her whole and lived alone but it wasn’t like she hadn’t done anything in between. She had done at lot of things with her life, a lot of the things you were "supposed" to do.
She had been married, admittedly only for three years and it had ended in divorce but she had done it. There were people her age who hadn't done that. She had a kid during those three years, a daughter who she loved and adored. There were people out there who didn't have that. Not only was she successful, she was good at her job. There weren't many female Lieutenants in the world and she was going to make Captain if it killed her.
She had a nice little house in a nice little suburb and a best friend who while frustrating honestly cared about her. She was friends in all walks of life and sometimes she even managed to have a boyfriend and date.
Yeah, she had done a lot with her life. The looming presence of the big four-oh was not that scary but… it was a little unsatisfying. Sometimes she worked a little too long, stayed in the office just a little too late and when she went home her house was just a little too quiet. She often felt like she didn’t get enough time with her daughter and she really hated her ex - who was getting remarried.
There was just this vague sense of dissatisfaction sometimes when she bothered to examine where she had ended up. Luckily, it was only sometimes and she didn’t really spend that much time on self-examination.
It was only a mid-life crisis, she had a whole half of a life left to get over it.