For the first time in 30 entries, I'm truly stumped. I don't mean in a drama queen, "Oh dear heavens, what do I even write? Goodness gracious this is terrible," way. More of an, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," kind of way. Let's start with the basics, I suppose.
This week's topic is youth.
Great! Now I'm going to find a quote I agree with or think is interesting. Give me one moment...
“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
When we were young, we saw the world throw a very narrow lens, albeit a very naive lens. This lends itself to have given us to see the world unbiased and untainted. Whether we were too young to understand the things happening around us or we simply didn't notice them, I think it's absolutely true that we could be happier because of it. I would go so far as to say that younger people are lucky in the sense that they haven't seen the world for what it really is.
But that's pretty negative. In fact, like Kafka said, you don't have to focus on the bad in the world—we can continue to see beauty in the world and therefore never "grow old".
(I have to admit at this point that I've kind of lost track of where I was going with this, but we shall trudge along together and make it through this. Onwards!)
In the song, "Here I Am Alive," by Yellowcard, the lyrics touch upon this concept, saying, "They say you don't grow up, you just grow old," etc., etc. This is an idea I truly hold dear to my heart, and just recently came around to thinking about it again.
I think with the idea of "growing up" comes along this image of being hardened and stoic in life. We used to see grown-ups as these beings with infinite knowledge and an aversion to anything wrong with the world. When we were little, our role models were adults. Part of it, I think, was because they looked like they had everything together. But they don't. We know that now because we are, in a sense, grown ups.
So to say that you don't grow up, you just grow old, means to continue living while being OK with making mistakes. Everyone will tell you that it's time to get your bearings straight, that it's time to straighten up, and time to get your act together. Sure, but unless you're a raging alcoholic with an methamphetamine addiction raising seven kids in a split level house, I really don't see what the urgency is. When it's all said and done, when you come out of the other side of a mistake you've made alive, you're a stronger person for it.
(OK, now I'm really off track, so here's an abrupt non-transition back into what I originally thought I was talking about.)
Yes, we have to grow up eventually, but seeing the world through the eyes of the young is being able to, as Kafka said, see beauty. When we lose the ability to see beauty, I think we lose the ability to cherish and truly love what's around us. In a sense, growing up is the death of curiosity and wonder, and the birth of reason.
Um. OK. Definitely have no idea where this is going anymore. If there's one thing I wish you would take away from this, it's Franz Kafka's quote.
Hey, go do something unreasonable! Have fun! Be curious! Explore the wondrous world!
Forget you ever read this!
// Brian