Nigeria, Nov. 6 -- It feels somewhat like nostalgia, but it's not. Life, they say, happens. There was something else I used to hear while growing up: A fool at 40 is a fool forever. I suspect that the wit here, if I may call it a wit, is that whatever one cannot achieve in life at age 40 may not be achievable thereafter.

This saying may be valid only in some cultures or inapplicable in all cases, even in cultures where it is commonly used. It suggests that whatever is not achieved by age 40 - believed to be the beginning of midlife, marked by identity crises, choices, and fear of mortality - would be even more challenging to achieve afterwards.

How true is this? I'm well past 40 but still forward-looking. And I might add that I'm not no...