Joseph Brodsky: Speech at the Stadium

"Do I know something about life that could be of help or consequence to you, and if I do, is there a way to pass this information on to you?

The answer to the first question is, I suppose, yes — not so much because a person of my age is entitled to out-fox any of you at existential chess as because he is, in all probability, tired of quite a lot of the stuff you are still aspiring to. (This fatigue alone is something the young should be advised on as an attendant feature of both their eventual success and their failure; this sort of knowledge may enhance their savoring of the former as well as a better weathering of the latter.) As for the second question, I truly wonder."

It is an interesting thought - can we actually learn general principles about life from those that have gone before us? I get that we can learn skills and build on their skills... but how much of life has to be lived to be learned?

The fatigue comment also is somewhat refreshing and somewhat depressing... I'm at most half the age of Brodsky when he is saying this, but is it inevitable that the game/race of life will eventually be tedious? Eventually be something that I no longer want to "compete" in?