More Musing about A Voice in the Wind

A Voice in the Wind you'll note below is set in imperial Rome, after the time of Nero. One of the conflicts in the book is the clash between a wealthy merchant and his wife on one side and their young adult children on the other. Dad started with little, made his fortune and has been able to offer his kids every advantage. The kids are just that, kids, despite their age. They want to party, to go to the Games, and to have sex. They are selfish and seek only their own pleasure. In some ways they don't sound so unlike many American young adults today. They don't want kids (at least right now). They are into sexual experimentation. They don't believe in any religion and so figure they might was well have fun in the time they have. Of course in the process of living this selfish, pleasure-seeking life, they don't find happiness but emptiness. There is a guy I work with who has a thirty year old daughter who has five kids, all under ten years old. She is considered odd by most who know of her, but I wonder, twenty years from now, who will be happiest, from a strictly secular view, her, or the thirty year old yuppie who has chosen not to have kids, to flit from relationship to relationship and to pour her main energy into her job? I'll put my money on the mom.