30 till 40

Thirty days from today I turn 40.

Although I'm a bit freaked by the prospect of another decade fading into the vapor of history like a donut at breakfast, I am looking forward to my forties. For me, a person's forties are his or her "adult" phase. (gulp) The decade when we do "adult" things like sit around and discuss the Palestinian crisis in Gaza or move to a house farther from the center of town or become the vice-president at our company (we become the CEO in our fifties.) We stop buying tickets to see Coldplay or the Foo Fighters and find ourselves holding hands with our spouses at a James Taylor concert or Chicago reunion tour.

It seems like there should be some sort of rite of passage.

And I'm talking about something beyond the red sports car and fling with the secretary. A way to say goodbye to the decade of starting a family and settling in and just plain "settling."

I'm going to explore what I would like my rite of passage to look like in the coming days. It might get ugly.