Youth...

What experience did Ponce de Leon and others hope to gain by finding the Fountain of Youth? What is so appealing about being young? Is it simply freedom from pain and responsibility?

Sebastian Haffner offers one hint in his book Defying Hitler, it was

...so full of innocent fun and youthful gravity, of dreams of the future and of universal fellowship and trust... (p. 80)

At the age of thirty-two, Haffner was already remembering his youth with nostalgia. There was something so carefree into those days, something he no longer had, something he left when he grew older or at least was no longer young.

Further, he casually observes the parents' role in the training of a youth:

Is is not said that in peacetime the chiefs of staff always prepare their armies as well as possible -- for the previous war? I cannot judge the truth of that, but it is certainly true that conscientious parents always educate their sons for the era that is just over. (p. 102)

Perhaps, this is why there always seems to be a generational gap, especially at the time of the younger one's youth. It is not so much parents' fault as it is to be blamed on the passage of time and the changes that necessarily come with it.