Midlife: "Ahead of you is a sheer cliff dropping into a stony, icy crevasse"

For British comedian Richard Herring, hitting 40 is -- if nothing else -- a source of new material. As he writes in the UK's TimesOnline:

... (being halfway through your life is) like getting to the top of a hill. For your first 39 years you’re struggling up the steep slopes, heading for the top as fast as possible, not even looking around you, desperate to see what’s on the other side. Finally you are at the summit and get a clear view both ahead and behind.

You look back and you see a lush, fecund valley full of cavorting young people who wanted to be your friends, but ahead of you is a sheer cliff dropping into a stony, icy crevasse, littered with the bodies of the dead and dying. You want to turn round and do the climb again at a leisurely pace, but you are manhandled into a toboggan and sent whizzing down the slope. You might get thrown off at any point and die or get to the bottom and die. All that is certain is you are going to die, soon, along with all the other idiots who rushed to get over the hill only to find that the hill was what it was all about.

He blames his endless adolescence on too many choices:

... my generation had more choice (than my parents') ... I had career options. ... Effective contraception along with the subsequent shifting social attitude to sex outside marriage means that my generation has much more choice about when and if they have kids. It means marriage and responsibility can be postponed and we are able to focus entirely on ourselves.

But is he ready to grow up?

I must admit I’ve had fun, but sometimes worry I’ve left it too late. Too late to find someone, too late to have children. But there’s still a little time left on the toboggan ride to death. And if I spawn at the right moment I’ll be able to enjoy my kids while they are still cute and giving me unconditional love and then die just as they are approaching their teenage years, saving myself an awful lot of unpleasantness.

His new show is "Oh F***, I’m 40!"