There is another memory I’ve been wanting to post about for some time… When my father turned 40, he had a bit of a hard time with that. I suppose you could call it a midlife crisis, although in his case that does not seem entirely accurate. After all, he died only four years later.

From what I heard about midlife crises, a lot of men start desperately wanting to feel young. They do get a new and younger girlfriend. Or, like an ex colleague of ours, they start riding a motorcycle until they get involved in an accident and have to accept they are no longer in their twenties.

Anyway, one day my father came home as happy as a child that has just received an unexpected gift. He found a key ring on the street, with no keys on it. But it had a tag which read ‘life begins at 40′. At the time, I couldn’t understand why he was so happy about that. To be honest, I’m still not sure I understand completely.

Maybe it just made him see that any age has it’s advantages, and turning 40 doesn’t mean you’re all of a sudden an old person? It really is nothing that special, but it’s a memory that somehow sticked around…

Reconstructing My Memories