Analyzing The 40-Year Old Male Crisis

I've known about this a long time, but I'm only now getting around to writing down some serious thoughts about it. When I was 25 years old, I had a pretty major meltdown which I think I'd attribute mostly to the pressure that I felt to "make something" out of my life. Out of college for 3 or 4 years, I suddenly felt like all I had ahead of me was a lifetime of work and obligation, routine and boredom. It was paralyzing and scary as hell, and so I freaked out a bit at the mere thought of the end of childhood, freedom from obligation, etc.  Eventually, I normalized (with the help of my parents, a shrink and writing out my thoughts), but every once in a while, I find myself stepping into smaller versions of the same abyss. I find that having a wife first, and then kids, have kept me mostly out of the abyss, as they've reminded me of the real reasons why we work and toil, and they've provided distraction from my penchant for navel-gazing. These days, I find that I'm running into many men who are having a similar crisis to mine, albeit at a later stage in their life. I don't think we're quite at mid-life crisis territory yet, as I guess I just always associated "mid-life" with 50's and 60's (although technically, 40 is closer to mid-life for most of us). The men I know, and I'd say this applies to somewhere between 60-75% of them, all seem to be staring in the mirror at themselves, and wondering if "this is it". Usually, it seems more about their career than the meaning of life - these guys have great families, and, oddly enough, are quite successful in their given careers - but they feel the gravity that keeps them in place (perhaps a better word for gravity is 'mortgage') and they long to break out and do something new, yet it's so hard to stomach the risk, both financially and to their ego, which might not want to 'start over' in a menial job. I think about these issues alot, especially on my tough days at DS. I wonder what life would be like if I just left the Web, and went on to do something totally new. Some days I toy with new inventions, others I think about being a teacher, or a scientist, or even a musician. But I never do anything about it, and I think I'm generally OK with that. I haven't done much reading or homework on the mid-life crisis, but it's always seemed like a big analysis of your existence on this Earth - what will it all mean? I've been thinking about that since I was 15, but only now do I begin to perceive the door starting to close...physically (I'm just not in the same shape), financially (I got a family to support), etc. Anyway, no big point here except that I continue to think about the issues that us guys never really talk about in person - remember, guys don't really talk about what keeps them up nights - and wonder where my head will be in the coming years. Nope, no April Fool's joke here. Just boring old me...