How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I'm [...] supposed to be just starting my own family, but there's been a setback [...] and you wouldn't think you could get any more depressed while sitting shiva for your father, but you'd be wrong. Suddenly, I can't stop seeing the footprints of time on everyone in the room. (8.10)
What's got Judd even more depressed than his father's death? Comparing himself to the old married couples at the shiva. He's looking back at his own "footprints of time" and wondering where he's going to be leaving footprints in the future. From his perspective, it's a lot easier to walk into the future if you've got a partner at your side.
Quote #2
And now I have no wife, no child, no job, no home, or anything else that would point to a life being lived with any success. (8.12)
Judd comes from a pretty successful, mainstream family, which gives him specific expectations about the path that his life will take. Imagine that shock when he wakes up to find that he doesn't have anything resembling the life his parents had—something that a lot of us are going to feeling, unfortunately.
Quote #3
To have nothing when you're twenty is cool, it's expected, but to have nothing when you're halfway to seventy, softening and widening on a daily basis, is something altogether different. (8.12)
Notice how Judd compares himself to a twenty-year-old? Yeah, that's not something you want to be doing in your thirties. Your thirties are a time for looking down on people in their twenties, not living their lifestyle. Get it together, man!