“The older I grow, the more I notice that childhood and old age not only meet but are the two most profound states we are given to live. The essence of a being is revealed in them, before or after the efforts, aspirations, ambitions of life. The eyes of the child and those of the old man gaze with the calm candor of one who has not yet entered the masked ball or already left it. And the whole interval seems a vain tumult, an empty commotion, an unnecessary chaos through which we wonder why we had to go through” Marguerite Yourcenar.