The Richter Scale^®

I celebrated my 42nd birthday yesterday by not working (and yes, I usually do work on Sundays, so this was unusual). Instead, I sat on my couch and played video games with my children for most of the day (Tomb Raider on the Xbox 360 with me at the controls and my kids helping me figure out how to get past the variety of interesting puzzles).

I don’t feel particularly old, and in fact I feel more alert and alive in some ways than I did (or think I did) a decade ago. Sure, my eyesight is slowly deteriorating from the 20/15 vision I used to have, and my hair is grayer (or whiter) than it used to be, but those changes are minor. It’s what’s inside that determines youth, or at least so I think.

And my wife today sent me a quote attributed to General Douglas MacArthur which I think beautifully underscores that:

Youth is not a time of life--it is a state of mind.

Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years;
people grow old by deserting their ideals.
Years may wrinkle your skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles your soul.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubts;
as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear;
as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

In the central place of your heart there is a recording chamber;
so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage
--so long are you young.

When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snow
of pessimism and the ice of cynicism,
then--and only then--are you grown old.

Douglas MacArthur

I don’t know if MacArthur penned those words, but they certainly are poignant. I’ve already asked my wife to smack me around to shock me back to common sense and reality should I ever lose my enthusiasm for life and learning. I, for one, would prefer not to have a wrinkled soul.