YOUTH

At last, a word that's sweeter and nicer than all the others.
After I wrote an article on old age called "I feel I'm getting old" and received a few comments, one of them was:

"You're not old but less young".

 

Encouraged by this, I'm now ready to give youth the credit it deserves.

Youth is that part of life between childhood and adulthood.

Early youth is called adolescence. As the saying goes: "Youth must pass away". We need to be indulgent when it comes to the faults caused by the vivacity and inexperience of young people.

The other proverb says: "If youth knew, if old age could", i.e. if youth had experience and old age strength. From this, we conclude that youth has freshness but lacks experience, it doesn't know how to personally experience the reality of a thing. It lacks that knowledge acquired through long practice. It's true that great skill is acquired through practice.

By young, we mean someone who is not advanced in years, as opposed to older or senior. We often forgive a young person's clumsiness because we know he's a little inadequate. On the other hand, who wouldn't like to be surrounded by young people, talking to them, thinking like them, trying to act like them? The advantage of being young is not knowing the measure of time.

I so wish young people would take an interest in philosophy. I'm afraid that this word and this science scare them. On the other hand, they love comfort, money and laziness. These days, they don't want to marry and raise a family... they prefer to savor the moment.

If only these young people would listen to the old, when what they say always has some truth in it. No, they think they know it all, and don't need our wise counsel. They're too austere, too sad. They don't realize that their inexperience needs the prudence of old age. I think Cicero said that before I did.

Youth isn't just an age group. Back then, we all had dreams, a lot of innocence, a lack of seriousness about anything but the things that really matter, like living or having fun. No wonder the Arab proverb says: "Youth is a fraction of madness". I'm afraid, however, that time is the enemy of youth, and that's why we complain that time passes too quickly and our youth fades away. And to think we thought our youth was eternal.

A certain Jean Giono once said: "Youth is the passion for the useless". Is that really true? How can we have passion for something that's of no use? Should we really believe certain proverbs? I much prefer the words of Alexandre Dumas: "Youth is a flower of which love is the fruit", and how about that anonymous quote: "Youth has a pretty face, age a beautiful soul".

I'm quite happy to find nice words, and it's a nice change from old age, even if people around me tell me that age is really just a number. On several occasions, I've used a Greek proverb to justify the situation, telling people to work in their youth and rest in their old age.

In conclusion, I could end with a Persian proverb: "The drunkenness of youth is stronger than the drunkenness of wine". However, it would have been desirable if youth had come a little later in life.