To soon old, too late wise.

That's a paraphrase of Ben Franklin's " Life's Tragedy is that we get old to soon and wise too late."

I suspect I'm just a slow learner, but it's nice to know it's a common enough notion that Ol' Ben mentioned it.

The generation gap, the young wolf challenging the old for dominance, youth is wasted on the young, etc, nothing new here.

It's just a bit ironic that this singular lesson seems to always be learned just at the stage in life where it is proven yet again.

This melancholy thought is apropos of nothing in particular, but curiously visible all around us with little stretch...