POETRY

I'd like share a poem.  My sister sent me part of it, recently.  It's good for the spirit.  The poem is  famous because it was one of General Douglas MacArthur's favorites and became known as his credo.  MacArthur was the commander of all Allied forces in the Pacific theater of operations during World War II.  He had a copy of the poem framed on the wall of his office's in Manila and Tokyo.  He referenced it in many speeches he made after the War.  It also became an inspiration for the Japanese people to rebuild their country.  The poem is called "YOUTH" and was written by Samuel Ullman.  

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supply knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep spring 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.

Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of the mind. It is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep spring of life. These are what I have and what we have at this period of life.  So, I'm still young, yes, definitely!

Come on my fellow friends, show your energy and passion to this god damn world!  Let the universe hear our voice, see our cheek, hug our enthusiasm and witness our maturity.  We're going to create a brand new future!

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