This is the underrated ecstasy—and the tragic paradox—of staying alive: I love getting older, because it allows me to remember things I once needed to learn. I feel like I understand music more today than I did yesterday, and yesterday I understand it more than I did two days ago. But yet, I wonder: Does this understanding only serve to signify that this part of my life is supposed to be over? Is “understanding” an emotional, unserious art missing the point entirely? Maybe. But I can’t stop, even if I should. I’ll always be interested in What The Kids Are Listening To, even as that interest becomes the sonic equivalent of looking at animals inside a zoo. I see a zebra, and I know what it is. But you know what I can’t see? How zebras look to a zebra. And that, I realize, is what matters most.

excerpt from “All the Kids are Right,” Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman.