(or not)
The effort to wise up
while we're still young enough
to enjoy it.
"That children do not know the reason of their desires,
all the learned teachers and instructors agree.
But that gownups too
stumble like children on this earth,
not knowing whence they come or whither they go,
acting as little according to true purposes,
being ruled by cakes and birch rods, no one likes to believe;
yet to me it seems quite obvious."
- Johannes von Goethe
"It is one of the capital tragedies of youth -
and youth is the time of tragedy -
that the youth are thrown mainly with adults
they do not quite respect."
- H. L. Mencken
Thought Experiment:
Step 1:
Some of us, maybe even many of us, when we're getting up in years . . . look back on our lives ( . . . or at least, our youth), reflect thoughtfully and say . . .
"I blew it."
( . . . or, "What could I have done better?" or, like "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," that kind of thing.
Step 2:
Say, this is the realization of a parent, or an old grandmother, who has kids or grandkids she really cares about.
Then, too often, she goes to her grandkids and says, "Hey, don't do what I did. Don't make the same mistakes I made. This is something I know, from experience."
Step 3:
Grandkid says, "What do you know? You're just an old codger! And who are you to impose your morality on me? That (whatever you're talking about) doesn't sound like any fun.
I'm different, special, completely unique, smarter, immortal, the rules don't apply to me, by nature I an inherently immune to any kind of whatever you're talking about. But thanks anyway."
Step 4:
Grandkid repeats the same mistakes as Grandmother.
Step 5:
Sixty or so years pass.
Grandkid now assumes the same position as Grandmother.
Return to Step 1.
Such is life.
"Youth is a wonderful thing.
What a crime to waste it on children."
- George Bernard Shaw
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