Thursday, 23 January 2020

Mid-Life Crisis Songs #42: Peak Misery


I was cheered to read last week that a new study has found the age of peak misery is 47... which is exactly how old I am right now. Apparently monkeys also experience a similar winter of discontent at the same age... so my current unhappiness is genetic!

Well, that cheers me right up. It means that from now on, as D:Ream so memorably put it, Things Can Only Get Better. Perhaps those of you reading this who are older than me will back this up. I mean, you're presumably all enjoying your second wind now, are you? Skipping through the buttercup meadows of your second half-century with a smile on your face and a song in your heart. Do reassure me that it's true.

Meanwhile, I'll just sit here wallowing in the single pop lyric that most sums up my own life at the moment. Because, according to the experts, this too will pass...

A heart that's full up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won't heal

You look so tired, unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us

I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide

With no alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
Silent, silent



at

4 comments:

  1. Martin23 January 2020 at 09:29

    Ah. This was my eternal jam back on TIMJ.

    I'd like to say it gets better. Like to.

    ReplyDelete
  2. C23 January 2020 at 13:05

    Ever the optimist, me - it's not so bad, Rol, honestly, if my current mid-50s experience is anything to go by. You sort of settle into yourself, I think. Just think of it as a ride, get comfy and keep going forward.

    Proper decrepit old age is what I inevitably dread - hopefully a way off yet but I already have a plan involving whisky and aspirin.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rigid Digit23 January 2020 at 19:38

    Hang in there mate - in the words of Danny The Dealer from Withnail & I "it will pass". Honest.
    Yup - 47. The point I looked back and felt a bit weird. And the job bit - a real bugger, and one that takes a bit of balance. It aint slowly killing you, it just feels like it.
    Easy to write, but not so easy to sound empathetic.

    Radiohead have never bettered that song. Is it a pessimistic song or a song about how sh*t reality can be when the world gets on top? We all have the power to find joy in something. Might just need a bit of re-balancing.
    Keep going forward, there'll be some reward (or a little victory somewhere)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rol24 January 2020 at 22:43

    Thanks, all. I thought this post was a but more tongue in cheek than it came across, but maybe I'm just papering over the cracks.

    ReplyDelete