Explain the follwing quote from "A Clean, Well Lighted Place": "We are of two different kinds."

The two waiters of Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean,
Well-Lighted Place" converse after the old man has been told by the younger waiter that
he must go home.  This younger waiter is eager to go home to his wife, but the old man
has wanted to stay, and the older waiter understands why; hence he tells the younger
man, "We are of two different kinds."  For, while the younger waiter is eager to close
the cafe, the older waiter is reluctant "because there may be some one who needs a
cafe." Like those who need the light, the older waiter has stared into the
Nada.

The younger waiter is unconcerned that anyone would
need a clean, well-lighted place such as the cafe because he has youth and confidence;
he does not yet sense the void that life brings as one grows older. For, once the
excitements of youth have passed, there comes, then,

readability="6">

a nothing that he (the older waiter) knew too
well.  It was all a nothing and a man was nothing
too.

Only routine makes life
predictable and gives it meaning.  Only a clean, well-lighted place gives comfort to the
darkness and nothingness and aloneness that overcomes a person. Not even prayer
helps.