Well, the truth is...I would like to go back to a more innocent time. But I don't know how to compensate for some searing brutality I have seen in a few people over the past years. Live long enough and you will see more and more...

Some people have a sort of conversion experience, and choose to live in good faith as much as possible (such as Tolstoy) yet retain a sort of melancholia. I think what I want and what is truly possible might be quite different.

Thank you for this lovely thread.