Words that caught me: I is for Ideals

 

“Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind;

it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees;

it is a matter of the will,

a quality of the imagination,

a vigor of the emotions;

it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

 

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity,

of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.

This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty.

Nobody grows old merely by a number of years.

We grow old by deserting our ideals.

 

Years may wrinkle the skin,

but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart

and turns the spirit back to dust.

 

Whether sixty or sixteen,

there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder,

the unfailing child-like appetite of what's next,

and the joy of the game of living.

In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station;

so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer,

courage and power from men and from the infinite,

so long are you young.

 

When the aerials are down,

and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism,

then you are grown old, even at twenty,

but as long as your aerials are up,

to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.”

 

Do you consider yourself young or old?

This is not a trivial or idle question as it sounds.

A few months ago,

This question galvanized the attention of the entire country

With some government appointments.

And this week i had an odd, but insightful conversation,

In which one of my mentors sounded the same dilemma.

The issue was, when, if at all,

Should you sit and enjoy the fruits of your success (what we call retirement)?

Or, should you keep driving full steam, up the next mountain,

Until the Almighty says your work here is done?

 

That’s a question everyone has to answer for themselves.

 

Are you young or old?

Have you deserted your ideals,

Or are you full of wonder and enthusiasm for what’s next?

Are your aerials up or down?

 

*This week’s reflection is inspired by the above poem by Samuel Ullman titled "YOUTH".