The human condition is the subject of Sophocles writing, and he seems not to come up with a satisfactory answer to the problems associated with being human.   His characters seem destined to fail to solve the problems associated with their human condition.  Antigone seems to understand that she is helpless to solve the problems that are inflicted on her and on her family. 

Living in a retirement community isn’t like living out in the world.  Living in a retirement community is a bit like living as Antigone did with the reminder that there is finally nothing that a person can do to avoid the suffering and pain that comes with the search for solutions.  So like Antigone, one must look for a way to be at least dignified in the confrontation of inevitable suffering and pain.

Wow! I just reread that last paragraph, and it sounds worse than it actually is… but I’ve decided not to change it, to soften it.  I don’t have any pain and suffering… but I know it is coming for many of the people who surround me here.  Perhaps the knowledge that it will come should bother me more than it does.