How Dante Saved My Life

What is a midlife crisis? The pop-culture notion is something like Kevin Spacey’s folly in the film “American Beauty”: a period in the middle of a man’s life in which he finds himself mired in an “Is that all there is?” malaise. He seeks to regain his mojo by acquiring mistresses, fast cars, or other totems of youth. Pathetic, right? What kind of chump has a mid-life crisis?

Well, for one, a 46-year-old chump like me—and I didn’t see it coming. Happy marriage? Check. Great kids? Check. Good job, good church, good health? Check, check, and (mostly) check. True, my only sibling died in 2011, but that event turned into an occasion of grace, one that brought me the unexpected blessing of returning to my hometown after a lifetime of wandering. And the book I wrote about that journey had for the first time given me financial security. What’s not to like?