Getting used to this full-time working business again

[zebra363]

I think that was my first 55-hour work-week in over five years. I used to do this all the time! Life's suddenly got so much busier that I was starting to complain to myself it wasn't much fun, but then I took stock and decided that wasn't true

Comments

[victorian_tweed]

A Deadwood sub-committee! Sounds like fun!!

Oh...and middle age. Hmm. See, I feel there's physical middle age and not so physical middle age. I'm very definitely physically middle aged (will spare you the grim details), but I think/hope the fan gene keeps me younger than outwards appearances would have you believe.

[zebra363]

Have you seen any of Season 3 yet? Some of the characterisation has veered into the ridiculous IMO, but I'm trying to hold judgment until it's over. It's a good social night, anyway!

I'm just talking the physical age that the term brings to mind. The question sprang from a discussion about physicality, not that that's clear from what I said. Obviously the fan gene will keep you young!

Here's another quote from that site:

The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in 70 or 80 years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. Doris Lessing

[victorian_tweed]

What a lovely quote! I will hold it near and dear to my heart :-)

I haven't seen any of Season 3 yet, but I will try to amend that asap!

[cricketk]

For me, Middle-Aged is that bit where you really relax into being yourself and get good and comfortable with your life. My parents have just hit it in the last five or so years. And I think they'll probably stay there for a good long time.

Old is when you stop being interested in new ideas and stop being interested in other people. I've met folks who were old at 24.

Quotes:

Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.
Agnes de Mille (1909 - 1993)

Of course the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you--if you don't play, you can't win.
Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.
Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881)

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

[zebra363]

But when the term's used in everyday language, what does it conjure up for you? For example, this is from an article I just read about an HP convention: "It could be any other academic conference apart from the fact that there are at least three middle-aged women dressed as witches complete with hats, cloaks and wands." How old are you supposed to imagine they are?

I like quotes 1-4. Does 5 apply if it's something you absolutely cannot have? Or only if it's something you can work towards? (Nice philosophical question for you!)

[cricketk]

when the term's used in everyday language, what does it conjure up for you?

Actually - frumpy. It's kind of a bit derogatory really, in regular conversation. The two coolest people at my work are 64 and 48 - and it would never occur to me to call either of them middle-aged. Yet there are three who are 59 and I would call two of them old and one of them middle-aged.

It really isn't age for me, it's attitude.

Does 5 apply if it's something you absolutely cannot have?
I think yes. Obviously it's good to have things to work towards, but if it's something you want that you absolutely can't have... a spice of pain and loss makes the sweet things all the sweeter.

[cricketk]

And I also just thought - it depends whether it's want or need. Needing something you can't have is not OK and doesn't make anything sweeter.

[juffles]

Middle-age is your parents' age. I'm a big fan of continuously moving the goal-posts. :)

[zebra363]

There was a quote along those lines:

To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am. Bernard M. Baruch

[juffles]

True, but I prefer a bit more of a buffer than 15 years. My parents had me when they were 30, which means I don't hit middle age until at least 60. For now. :)

[imkalena]

I can go with that

[vegetariansushi]

I have to admit that I'm pretty firmly with juffles on this one: 'middle-aged' will, I think, always be where my parents are. They've been middle-aged for the last 20 years, by my count, and I suspect that they have another ten to twenty before I start thinking 'old'.

That said, I am willing to accept middle-aged onset in other people in their 40s or 50s, I suppose, but it's a word that I rarely think to use unless someone else uses it first.

[zebra363]

That method only works up to a point, though! (And what if it's what M thinks about you? *g*.)

It's all over the place, so there must be an expected shared understanding of it. After writing this post, the first things I read were the newspaper article I quoted to Cricket and Laney Cairo's interview on her site, both of which used it!

[malnpudl]

I said 45, but all I'm sure of is that at 48, I'm there. Without question.

And you know, it's not bad. It's not bad at all.

[zebra363]

I just found an Australian government health site which calls it late 40s to early 60s, so by their definition you're just scraping in!