Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a daily column that runs on Page 1 of the vernacular Asahi Shimbun.
Once upon a time, a man came to see a high priest to say New Year's greetings and asked him to write some words. The priest readily wrote: "Parents die, children die and grandchildren die." The man got angry at those words. Then, the priest quietly said, "It's good that children die after their parents died and grandchildren die after the children died. It would be terrible if the order is reversed."