Over lunch at our favorite restaurant in Zagreb, my beloved and I stumbled upon the question of age in our civilization. I took off at once. This civilization does not match the age of its individual members very well, I argued. In fact, I continued with growing passion, it fails all age groups pretty dismally. The young are prevented from doing what they are best at. Most important, they are prevented from having children at the age when they are best suited for it. That is, just after puberty. The old are also prevented from doing what they are best at. The wisdom they have accumulated is of no interest to anyone. Past their retirement age, they are but a nuisance to everyone. And the middle-aged are prevented from taking care of both their jobs and their families, which cannot but interfere with each other in the end. Even a cursory look at traditional societies shows that there was hardly any mismatch between age and sundry social obligations. As I was going on and on, my beloved started giggling at some point. It was clear that she was not interested in anything I had to say about the question of age. Not in the least. We are an entire generation apart, anyway.