Stop sitting around waiting to die

“How am I doing? Oh you know, just sitting around waiting to die.” — name withheld

The above quote was made some years ago by a woman I’ve known for most of my life. It’s probably needless to say that I was rather shocked to hear her say that. Wow, that’s sooooo depressing! But it occurs to me that there probably are a great number of people — particularly though not only those in our age group, the 50-something, empty-nested persons, who like my friend and I may also be divorced as well. Having no children (and/or spouse or significant other) at home means our lives have to switch into a new post-childraising stage and we need to find new purpose(s) to tackle.

I found my purpose — partly because I thought seriously about it for a few years before my one-and-only offspring flew from the nest almost four years ago — and am as happy as the proverbial clam.

Literature is full of stories about people who “are living lives of quiet desperation,” as I heard (or read) many, many years ago. One that comes to my mind was a story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” which I was forced to read while in college back in the day. Mitty is a meek little man who lives a dreary day-to-day existence, pretty much going through the motions, working at his job he can’t stand while he daydreams about being a superhero (come to think of it, sounds like my last date).

Though I question whether anyone out there will remember this story, I’m sure many of you can identify with it. We’ve all had jobs we…