[Flavius Josephus]

There's definitely something in the brain, however, particularly in old men, that snaps when they reach a certain age and makes them think that the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket.

I think it's called Growing Up, and one hopes it happens before he gets old. It's when you realize, as you could not as a youth, that there is a reason for the old ways. For example that the proscriptions against homosexual acting out were not codified just to be mean, but because it's a society killer.

[Antoninus]

I think it's called Growing Up, and one hopes it happens before he gets old. It's when you realize, as you could not as a youth, that there is a reason for the old ways.

No, you're misreading me. I'm not talking about the wisdom of maturity. I'm talking about the abject pessimism of some who are old. I think it has something to do with the psychology/spiritual aspects of aging and approaching the grave. It's a pervading spirit of pessimism that says, in effect, "the world must be getting worse because most of my friends and family are gone and someday very soon, I won't be here anymore either."

But as I said earlier, as Catholics, we are supposed to be hopeful people--not doom-and-gloomers. If we have been "good and faithful servants" here in this life, a great reward awaits us in the next.