I will speak from a layman point of view as I am really one among them. You can not be blessed with a span of 40 years of life and being able NOT to do mistakes. That is abnormal.
Many people of my age have reached this line after having passed through a very rough road with many ups and downs. The first 40 years of our life are always the toughest because we use them to lay a foundation for our late adulthood.
For some of us, who believe in the Hereafter, reaching 40 is the last round before our departure to the Almighty God who will reward or punish us eternally according to how we lived our worldly life. Of course, life can end anytime once it starts, but anyone who is blessed to reach 40, in my upbringing, was made to understand how little time he has left with.
Life before 40 is, thefore, a time of trial and error for many of us. It is a time when we are busy seeking to establish a foundation with which our late adulthood life will start and that will determine our position at the old age. In trying to establish this foundation and prepare a position, we tend to do many mistakes, sometimes knowingly, but many a time innocently.
That is why we are reaching at this age with a lot of scars, holes and patches. During our childhood, we did childish things but are easily forgiven and even forgotten. That might go until we reach our late adolescence.
But the aftermath of our pre-forty – both positive and negative – tends to follow us even after crossing the time line, unless we are finished with them prior to knocking the door No. 40. Otherwise, we will soon find how sticky the mistakes are.
That is what makes a decade before 40 a time for decision. No matter how sticky the mistakes might seem, one is always brave enough to undo them at this age. Given tools and resources, a 30 year old young person is more likely to undo the wrong they did before than those who are 40 years and plus.
I speak from the experience of being 41 and having committed many wrongs that are now haunting me. I am not offering any details of those mistakes, but believe me that it is not doing them that makes me feeling bitter, but my inability to correct them – or to undo them.
I truly believe that doing wrong things is not the worst thing to be happening to a human being. But living in a situation whereby you – due to any reasons – can not stop the mistakes and are obliged to live with them for the rest of your life, it is the greatest tragedy.
Mohammed Ghassani 