Youth

The quote below appeared in the Church News Viewpoint as part of an article entitled “A state

of mind” on July 18, 2015.  We found this most interesting, and pertinent.  We can bear

testimony of the truthfulness of the concepts presented by this man who was born almost 100

years before we were and who lived to be 84 – we suspect that he died young even at that age.

The depth of understanding and the perspective given by the  Gospel provide an even greater

basis for us all to maintain our “Youth” until we pass to the other side.

That each of you may catch the vision of this opportunity and have this blessing in your life, is

our prayer.

Gummy and Gumpy

  “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.”

Samuel Ullman (1840 – 1924)