The midpoint of life represents the moment of maximal conflict between our drive to seek external solutions to our emotional dilemmas and our recognition that ultimately they don't work.

“在我们的人生中，中年其实代表的是冲突最大化的时刻，寻求外部方案来解决我们的情绪问题与我们那最终失效的认识之间的冲突。”

I could see how often in my own life, when I felt down, I tried to remedy it with some kind of show-offy, grand external solution.

我可以看到在我自己的生活中， 当我感到沮丧时，我经常试图用某种炫耀的、宏伟的外部解决方案来补救它。