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This chapter explores the shifting narratives of midlife within lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, and the general role of sexuality in middle adulthood in creating the kinds of stories that inspire social change. It draws particular attention to the unexpected or eruptive life experiences that are major catalysts for adults’ meaning-making efforts, while also acknowledging that even expectable transitions and changes are culturally “underscripted,” particularly in mid- and later-life. The idea that gay and lesbian lives are relatively uncharted presumes that heterosexual lives are fully scripted. However, the continuing popularity of the midlife crisis narrative should dispel any notion that the search for meaning or the need for storytelling in middle adulthood is unique to sexual minority individuals.

On a widely accepted view, what gives meaning to our lives is success in valuable ground projects. However, philosophers like Kieran Setiya have recently challenged the value of such orientation toward the future, and argued that meaningful living is instead a matter of engaging in atelic activities that are complete in themselves at each moment. This chapter argues that insofar as what is at issue is meaningfulness in its primary existential sense, strongly atelic activities do not suffice for meaning. Instead, finding one’s life meaningful is warranted both by sustainable success in valuable prospective (future-oriented) projects and by success in reflexive projects that aim to promote or realize a practice-dependent value that can be realized at each moment, but never for good. Activities of the latter kind are only weakly atelic, since their aim remains distinct from the activity, and individual actions gain significance from serving a long-term commitment. Thus, whether our ground projects are prospective or reflexive, what we do at each moment contributes to leading a meaningful life only when it’s connected in the right way to what we do at other moments.

This chapter draws on the literature on musical prodigies and prodigies in general, career decision-making theory, the development of music professionals, and the career decisions of gifted adolescents, to arrive at an overview of the unique and complex career decisions of musical prodigies. The discussion, which incorporates multiple examples from the lives of prominent musical prodigies, centers on early career-related decisions, the experience of a midlife crisis, the subsequent “mature” career decision, and some of the reasons for the eventual pursuit or non-pursuit of an adult career in music. A number of implications for research, and recommendations for the guidance and counseling of musical prodigies, are provided.

Gregory Markopoulos was one of the key figures of American avant-garde cinema from the 1940s through the 1980s. This chapter focuses on The Mysteries, perhaps his most enigmatic film, made during what might be termed a mid-life crisis when mortality loomed and he was consumed with unanswered questions about art, life, and time. Through an intense examination of the film’s shots, often analyzed frame by frame, the author shows that a fictive scheme rules the film, and describes how its homosexual protagonist and his obsession with death inhibits his pursuit of a romantic relationship. The author argues, finally, that the film can be read convincingly as autobiographical.