“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

He battles his beliefs about age, yet he is frightened that with age comes complacency, stagnation. All of his life he has sought comradeship with others. He enjoys the easy commerce of the marketplace, the unpredictability of being a contractor.

He has, particularly in the past, been almost contemptuous of those with regular habits, regular ways. He has sought out to some extent the strange and the bizarre, and he believes, now, as he did earlier, in the importance of conflict as a way of keeping a man on his toes. One part of him loathes the idea of security. As he reached 50, his beliefs about age rose to the forefront. This was the time of caution and danger, when a man could retire, settle for security, give in to complacency—or even become a gentleman farmer—as he was at times tempted to do (with amusement).

Now what does youth mean to many? A time of conflict, and emotional turmoil. Certainly the young are usually poor, rather than rich, and what is best to shock a complacent mind out of its complacency—its feared complacency? For Frank was not complacent, but feared that age would make him so—hence a conflict. Its very emotional vividness tells him he is not old and complacent, and its financial elements certainly make clear to him that he is not seeping in elderly security. No indeed—he is pushed toward action.