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It’s sometimes said amongst crusty old cynics that youth is wasted on the young, meaning, we assume, that the benefits of youthfulness - health, energy, optimism, idealism - are something that the crusty old cynics themselves can more sensibly deal with and deploy. They’re wrong. Youth is a time for not knowing what you don’t know. Like KaosPilot trainee Michael Nybrandt, who in 2001 didn’t know you can’t just knock on the door of the Dalai Lama and ask him if you can help start up the first Tibetan National Football Association. As it happens, he got the green light (he didn’t know that he wouldn’t) and the team has been a source of pride to the world’s Tibetans and their supporters, and a thorn in China’s side, ever since. And don’t forget the world’s oldest child, the Dalai Lama himself, a source of constant inspiration and good humour who refuses to ‘know’ that the battle to save the culture of his country is without hope.
Youth is not wasted on the young; cynicism is superfluous in the old.
by Esther on May 11, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Too right. I do love the unknown - it is a great helper to faith.
Here’s another “young” quote which I appreciated very much:
“…young people seem to need sleep more than the old, who have already slept so much and are preparing to sleep for all eternity.” (Adso of Melk in “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco)
Meanwhile, it being 11.30am, I’d better go and get out of my pyjamas!