reality knocking

Why is it called "mid-life" crisis? The anxiety that grips you when creeping thoughts of loves lost, dreams unfullfilled, hopes crushed and women untasted are so frequent they have become a looped back-projection of your life? My question is, why "mid" life? Assuming an average male life span of 75, your mid-life crisis, along with mid-life success and mid-life contentment should happen when you're around 37! Admittedly, I was dealing with various crises at the age of 37 but the death of hope and a nagging ennui were not among them.

One starts out with a feeling that everything is possible, goes through stages of diminishing possibility to arrive at the reality of "some things possible, most not possible". To me, that's what mid-life crisis is all about. It's the arrival of reality. Just like in Canada winter is the reality and summer is the dream, so in life
all- encompassing hope is the dream and mid-life crisis is reality. Therefore, the word "crisis" is a misnomer.
A crisis has a solution, almost by definition. A crisis is really a gate to further possibility. But what I'm talking about are the icy fingers of reality:

a) when shiny young faces, eager contestants and pitchy voices seem outrageously irrelevant
b) when no one but you and your world weary, aging friends understand how serious a political crisis is
c) when a hot lasagne is much more enticing than hot lovemaking
d) when indigestion is the main topic of conversation -

you know reality has arrived, mon ami!