These responsibilities often entail dealing with a great deal more ethical ambiguity and have far fewer simple answers.

In addition to that, over the years I've learned many new facts about the world which indicate that I'm not as nice or good a person as I had previously understood myself to be.

At least in my case as, I get older I feel have both fewer options and the world is more complex than I had thought it was when I was when I was younger.

So my assumption has been that saying "I don't need to deal with XYZ" is probably far more common as folks get older.

And this doesn't seem to be a bad strategy.

On one hand, most large issues either resolve themselves are outside of any person's actions. On the other hand, I may gain even further insight about things as I age.

So I think that "hiding more from ourselves as we age" is probably normal.

I sure as hell don't have the optimism to look at the world with a head full of acid at this point in my life-- it's a horrible shit show of violence and greed even when I'm sober, and every year the possibility of doing much about it via individual action becomes less tenable.

But who knows, maybe I'll age into having some clearer understandings that will leave me more optimistic as I move into my 40s and 50s. Or get better at ignoring the vast problems.