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Zoom on mid-life crisis
Extract from the book "Il était une Foi..."
talks with Bernard Montaud
by Jean-Claude Duret. Edit'as 2000
“Modern man will have to create a new performance simply because he is facing a new dead-end ihis life: how absurd it is to only believe in material success.
This mid-life crisis is truly a great rendez-vous, because it will force humanity to discover the “Task-man”. Isn’t creating this new performance giving a new meaning to the whole human life? By offering a new way to succeed in our life, isn’t history going to prompt man’s evolution towards a new faith and a new political conception? Really, all conclusions we may reach regarding the incoming faith and politics come from telling how important this mid-life crisis is. Because of this crisis, no longer ignored but at last recognized, another believer and another elector may appear, and only then, our society may change.
The whole purpose of this mid-life crisis is to enable us to discover the Task-man, to lead a second active life, and this could well be the solution of many of our social and economic problems. The whole History is expecting us to reach this goal. Then the concept of Task might become evident, a new established fact for the future generations. And as something natural, our descendants will have a chance to take advantage of this blessed mid-life crisis, just as today we accept for instance, that married life is normal thanks to distant ancestors. Tomorrow, thanks to us, changing activity and moving to a Task might be as natural as it is today to get married, thanks to our distant forefathers’ previous achievement.
(…)
At the beginning it’s always a vague discomfort, a sort of indefinite ill-being, which must be put into words if we want to become aware. Moreover, this ill-being is very uncomfortable, because if we can say what we don’t want any more, we really don’t know what we would like instead.
This man or woman’s justified torment is quite understandable, because both reach this time in their life when the once known intensity has turned to monotony. When you are forty, your children have grown up. They already look for something else. When you are forty, you’ve been married for 15 years, and of course, it’s no longer the warm passion of earlier days. When you are forty, your job has turned into a routine. Holidays, friends, family are always more or less the same . When you are forty, you live rather comfortably. What more can you expect ?
In fact, isn’t it natural that inside yourself a small voice starts begging for some new excitements? Of course, it could fool you for some time to change job, mate, house or place!
In short, the first symptom is the following one: first, no more motivation for some of the values you once cared for, and at the same time, a need for a more exciting life, and yet not finding any new value to replace the others. This is a dead end!However, if we consider this matter carefully, on one hand, this disillusion makes you aware of all you have known whereas this need for new and intense experiences may lead to a sudden interest in people or things totally unknown so far. And how important it is to recognize and make place for this deep impulse, because if this is not done, the first incoming adventure such as adultery, will appear to be logical without any sound judgment.”
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