Hello everyone,
The following little blurb was printed in a Road & Track magazine back in the 70's, which was originally posted on a guys refrigerator in his garage. A reader requested that R & T reprint it, which they did.
When I read it, it struck me in a good way, and since that time, I have kept a copy on my refrigerator in my shop. (In fact, it has outlasted 3 refrigerators).
I hope this is not too off key for some folks. It tells a nice story. I really hope you enjoy it:
Youth is not a time of life. It’s a state of mind. It’s a test of the will.
A quality of imagination. A vigor of emotions.
A predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over
love of ease.
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
People grow old by deserting their ideals.
Years wrinkle the skin. But to give up enthusiasm, it wrinkles the soul.
Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair...............
These are the quick equivalents of the long, long years that bow the head
and turn the growing spirit back to dust.
Whether 70 or 16, there is in every beings heart, the love of wonder.
The sweet amazement of the stars, and the starlike things and thoughts.
The undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for
"what’s next?"
You are as young as your faith. As old as your doubt.
As young as your self confidence, as old as your fear.
As young as your hope, as old as your despair.
So as long as your heart receives messages of beauty, cheer, courage, grandeur,
and the power from the earth, from man and infinite, so long are you young.
When all the wires are down and all the central places of your heart are covered with snows
of pessimism, and the ice of cynicism,
then,
and only then are you grown old indeed.
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