The young man, who does not know the future, sees life as a kind of epic
adventure, an Odyssey through strange seas and unknown islands, where
he will test and prove his powers, and thereby discover his immortality.
The man of middle years, who has lived the future that he once
dreamed, sees life as a tragedy; for he has learned that his power,
however great, will not prevail against those forces of accident and
nature to which he gives the names of gods, and has learned that he is
mortal. But the man of age, if he plays his assigned role properly, must
see life as a comedy. For his triumphs and his failures merge, and one
is no more the occasion for pride or shame than the other; and he is
neither the hero who proves himself against those forces, nor the
protagonist who is destroyed by them. Like any poor, pitiable shell of
an actor, he comes to see that he has played so many parts that there no
longer is himself.
-- John Edward Williams
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