Middles

Today I am 38 years old. Twenty years ago I was in my last semester of high school and had my whole life ahead of me. Twenty years from now I will know for sure that more of my life is behind me than ahead. Right now I am somewhere in the middle. I am comfortable with middles. I am the middlemost of 7 children. I live in a geographical nexus point so that most of my relatives stop by as they are passing through. I’m probably about half way between the birth of my oldest and the departure of my youngest. US culture would have us believe that middle age is to be dreaded. It is when people are supposed to have a crisis of identity. I feel I know who I am and who I want to be, and I’m tired of crisis right now. I haven’t the energy for it. So I think I’ll keep going along and knowing that the middle is actually a good place to be.