Generation gap

I don't claim to understand everything about the 60s and 70s, or the 40s and 50s, or the decades before for that matter.  Of course I've read the history books, but I'm kind of in a process of figuring out what the deal was, how people thought, especially with regard to the Church.  It's so difficult to find good analysis of that, because so many people fall into the trap of "everything was rotten until they made it great, but now people are trying to undo our progress" or "everything was great until they ruined it" or something so close as to be indistinguishable ("they" typically being the Council), even if only for the sake of making their point.

One odd thing is when older people, when they see that I take an interest in Catholic tradition throughout the ages, from the beginning to now, including the part between the early Church and the modern era, accuse me of being nostalgic for the days before the Council, assuming that I want to make things like they were in their parish back when they were children, as if I even knew what that was like, which I don't.  (No, that's you.  You're the one who likes to watch The Bells of St. Mary's and reminisce, when I can't even sit through the film). 

I would like to be like the wise householder who "brings forth out of his treasure both new things and old."  If you want to understand what I am like, you had better look to Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict rather than to your memories, because they were my teachers.  And not the caricatures or thumbnail sketches of them you get from the news.  You may be surprised.  Not that I am done learning.  So maybe I will write about this sort of stuff.