YOUTH

YOUTH

                        Youth

                    Samuel Ullman

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Tassel

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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 body 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.

这是存储在MP3上的英语美文音频之一，很熟悉的一首诗。上个月偶然间又听到了。轻音乐伴随着熟悉的声音，瞬间把我拉回到大学时候。只不过这次听得时候心境不太一样。

最初听得时候二十岁左右，只是感觉写得真好，理就应如此；再次听得时候，依旧感觉写得真好，就应该是这样，而我也需要调整下心态。

现在，受周围人和环境的影响，我也逐渐有一些年龄焦虑。自己一个人是意识不到什么的，只不过当周围同学都纷纷结婚、生娃的时候；当遇见的同事越来越年轻的时候；当身边的女孩子开始担心长皱纹的时候；当父母开始为我念念叨叨的时候；当身边人礼貌的称呼我“小姐姐”的时候，我心里就犹豫，即使感觉自己还不大，但也纳闷自己是不是应该把自己归成网上所说的“中年老阿姨” 🤷♀️。没有对比就没有“伤害”，善哉善哉。

再次听到“YOUTH”的时候，它多少抚慰了轻微焦虑的我，因为我一直都相信它所说的。在正视自己年纪、意识到确实有所谓的年龄优势的年龄段，希望它能继续影响我，给我力量。也希望能给其他读到它的人带来一些影响。嗯，就酱。

图片来源：《了不起的盖茨比》

2018.8.10