Midlife Lottery

Some middle age men hit the lottery with the whole midlife crisis thing. First, they don't have a midlife crisis. In fact, midlife finds them confident in who they are. Midlife finds them understanding the true meaning of freedom, which is accept yourself and to be your true self. But this isn't the lottery. The lottery comes when their wife's own midlife crisis turns her into a super fit cougar. A super fit cougar who decides to get a boob job. Now, that's hitting the midlife lottery.

On the other end of the spectrum is what happened to Jack. Well, not Jack per say, but Jack's wife. She didn't get super fit and a boob job. She got tats and boys. This is a fate that is best ignored and when it cannot be ignored, it is a fate difficult to recover from. Men who have climbed Everest sans oxygen have been known to leave a cougar who got tats and boys. And I'm not talking about the Sherpa's who would probably welcome such a predicament.

So Jack was left with a dilemma, accept the tats and force ignorance of the boys or to shine a light into that dark corner. The problem with shining the light is you might glance at the spider but by the time you realize what you've seen, the spider has moved on.

Jack decided to force ignorance even when faced with the truth. Surely he wasn't the first man to make this choice. The cowardly thing would be to get tats of his own. The cowardly thing would be to get girls of his own. The cowardly thing would be to pack his bags and cut his losses.

Jack is in this for the long run, he told himself as he rolled over in bed noticing the right side was still cold and empty. Jack is in this for the long run, he told himself as his kids asked when their mother would be home. Jack is in this for the long run, he told himself when he found the note from her lover.

Jack thought about the meaning of freedom again. The freedom to be who you are, your true self. Maybe his cougar was just being free and the consequences be damned. Was it selfish? He didn't know. That wasn't material.

Jack is in this for the long run, he told himself as he packed his bags.