Photo by EnjoysTheRain via MorgueFile

Recently, it was the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. This is how the radio DJ announced it: “Hey everybody the anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination is coming up and that’s good.” I was puzzled until he continued. “Ya see, back then the average life was 42 years. Wouldn’t it be nice to get your mid-life crisis Porsche at 21 instead of 41? I found it funny. My post last week was about how marriage would change if we knew we would live 120 years or longer. I began to wonder. Have there always been mid-life crises? Men and women have always aged and that seems to be a major factor in the so called, “mid-life crisis.” Or were people less obsessed with youth when age was associated with wisdom? Maybe people were too busy surviving to care. If that’s the case, as we move into an era where the ravages of aging could be reduced or reversed by medical advances, I bet mid-life crisis will disappear. Maybe the mid-life crisis, like childhood, is a 20th century invention. Next week in Part II, I’ll try to answer these questions. In the meantime, leave your thoughts as comments.