The Noonday Devil in Marriage: Why Midlife Restlessness Can Quietly Destroy Intimacy (opens in new tab)

By noon the desert monks began losing confidence in reality. Their prayers flattened. Time thickened. Their vocation appeared fraudulent. They stared out windows, counted the hours, fantasized about departure, and became suddenly convinced that fulfillment existed somewhere else. The early theologians called this condition acedia. Later writers called it the “noonday devil.” A marvelous phrase. Medieval people named psychological states with unnerving precision. Today we call the same conditi...