Yesterday a study was released saying that 35 is the new middle age. Apparently people are feeling older and are facing pressures of being older at a younger age. This is remarkable in light of the idea of extended adolescence which says adolescence is now being extended to age 35.

Do we have to now move directly from adolescence into middle age?

This exposes something I have been noticing about American culture. Americans don’t like the “in between” times. I first noticed this with my wife. She constantly changes her hairstyle. Growing it out, she feels bad about the way it looks. It looks fine, but it isn’t the way she wants it now.

This isn’t all that bad unless you think about how that plays out in our faith. Often I meet with people unhappy with their lives. They know where they are going and where they have been. The in between times bother them. They don’t want the steady climb involved in normal progressions in life. They either want to be on the mountain top or the valley.

Just a helpful reminder to us all. We spend most of our time in between. There isn’t a lot of life at the top of the mountain, so we can’t live there. The valley is ok, but that is a place that becomes stagnant. Better than either of those options is being happy in between.