01 | Introducing Catholic Midlifers Karen and Curtis; Who are these people and what’s up with them hosting The Catholic Midlife Podcast?  

What’s up with these people? That’s the question. 

Actually, there were a few questions because we took turns asking them of each other. 

One of the more interesting ones was: What advice would you give your younger self? 

It’s surprising how much you’ve LEARNED since you were 20, or 30, or 40, or “beyond.” 

One of the problems in advising your younger self is that, no matter what you tell yourself, you need prudence to apply the advice. There’s the rub! 

The kinds of things that you would tell your younger self represent hard-earned WISDOM.  When it comes to getting advice, it’s tough to really “get it” until you’ve got the wisdom. 

Karen’s advice touched on thinking that there’s a need to make the absolute one best decision in each situation, and how that can steal your peace. My advice was about trying to avoid making decisions around being reactive, and instead, figure out what YOU need to do. 

It’s interesting that both of us gave our advice in relation to making choices. I wonder if that’s true for most people, or if it was a result of us being in conversation together? 

My (Curtis) kite surf instructor loves to say “we only learn through pain.” There’s a lot of truth in that, Mike.

Hopefully, in addition to having painful experiences, we can learn from others. We will bring you great midlife strategies from a Catholic perspective so you can avoid some of the pain of making unforced errors. 

One of the side plots in this episode was Karen trying to keep me (Curtis) on track and not digress. But Karen pushed a couple of buttons, including my blue-collar work days and how conflict can be helpful. 

It was interesting to hear what Karen was reading.  It was interesting, because she is reading a Thomistic philosopher, Josef Pieper, that I particularly like. She was reading about hope, and mentioned two of the pillars of hope. Those pillars are not what most of us would think of. 

Karen just touched on this topic and we expect to be speaking to it fairly soon: the theme of hope is central to Christian faith and to our podcast. She reminded me how the antidote to FEAR isn’t control, planning, certainty, or even prudence. It’s HOPE. Hope is the antidote to fear. 

We also decided to start a Facebook group: The Catholic Midlife. We are interested to hear your thoughts around the podcast.