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CONTEMPLATING AN ETERNITY OF YOUTH

By on • ( 37 )

Once again, WordPress is kindly offering to let me partake of a magical moment … in fact, magic itself. A drink from the very Fountain of Youth itself! What senior citizen could turn down such a great offer?

closeup manchaug dam waterfall

I’m a little suspicious. I know I’ve gotten more than a bit cynical over the years, but offers like this … isn’t there some fine print I need to read? Isn’t this the kind of contract you make with a dark stranger at a crossroad in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night?

“Bwahaha,” laughs old Scratch as he scurries away, paperwork in hand. “Snagged another old fool.”

If I’m to be forever young, able to drink from the frothy waters of that famed fountain, does it mean I have to also be forever stupid? I would have no objection to a young, resilient body. A back that bends, good skin, hair that stays on my head where it belongs. All these youthful things are, as we said in my real youth, groovy.

bench mumford uxbridge kids

A brain came with that package. Oy vay. Such a brain. It was filled with certitude based on books I’d read and some late night conversations with other undergrads. Mind you, I’m sure that’s how we have to be when we’re young. Otherwise, we would never have the courage to face our lives.

A certain brashness and belief that we can triumph no matter what is a prerequisite for getting on with life. I get that. I just don’t want to have to live in that head for even a little while, much less all eternity.

Actually, all eternity is a pretty daunting prospect and I’m not sure how I feel about it … but perhaps that’s another post for another Sunday morning.

apache junction black and white

So if they are giving away drinks from the fountain of youth, I will accept my slurp — IF I get to keep my current brain with all its experience, cynicism, and hard-won lessons. And I want a codicil specifying that while I get to feel young for as long as I live, I don’t think I want to live forever.

Long, maybe, but forever? To watch all the world I know disappear and who knows what to follow? I think not.

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37 replies

  1. Bette A. Stevens
    08/31/2015 • 20:22

    I’ll keep mine too! 🙂

    Like

  2. nonsmokingladybug
    08/31/2015 • 19:20

    That made me laugh. “Trading brain for youth.”
    Eternal youth! Can’t do it, I am married to an old guy, he coulnd’t handle it 🙂

    Like

  3. Soul n Spirit
    08/31/2015 • 16:25

    I would like to be young forever physically as is it is now a days I am feeling low because of the fact that I have started looking old as I touched forty. Regards young age brains, I would say no since I don’t want to behave like an impulsive fool, seriously don’t want to repeat the same mistakes for trusting people and get kicked at the end. It hurt then and it will hurt again.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      08/31/2015 • 17:33

      Forty? You’re still a child! Your forties are absolutely peak for a woman. You are at your smartest, strongest, most vibrant. Rejoice!

      Liked by 1 person

      • Soul n Spirit
        09/01/2015 • 03:57

        I am worried. I’m putting on weight and feeling bit low on energy. One year before I was so fit and look at me now, don’t want to exercise anymore. I have decided to come back in shape. Hopefully I will be able to.

        Like

  4. Tina, The Bo Bina
    08/31/2015 • 05:00

    What’s that ol’ saying, “if I knew then what I know now”? As a younger boomer (born in 1960), I wouldn’t mind turning the clocks back a few years as far as my body functions are concerned, but keep my mental insanity intact as is! 😉

    Like

  5. lifelessons
    08/30/2015 • 23:16

    Is that a picture of Old Tucson, Marilyn? If so, my parents lived very nearby! http://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/08/30/dont-drink-the-water-web-of-night/

    Like

  6. evilsquirrel13
    08/30/2015 • 22:00

    Geez, if I were suddenly young again, I’d probably be just like the rest of the cellphone zombies that prowl the earth now. I was so impressed by home video games and gigantic computers I could only play with at school…. I’m quite happy that I came of age well before Facebook and Tweeter came along to corrupt my impressionable mind…

    Liked by 1 person

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      08/30/2015 • 23:40

      ME TOO. Young doesn’t look like much fun any more. Maybe it’s me, but they don’t seem to have relationships or for that matter, conversations. Maybe it’s a stage they grow out of. I notice my granddaughter is beginning to be more of a person than she was a year ago. She’ll be 19 in a week … and there are definite signs of an emerging person.

      Like

    • Garry Armstrong
      08/31/2015 • 12:46

      Hey, Squirrel. Recently a friend treated me to a game at Fenway Park. Great seats and a lovely warm evening to take in the old ball park and the game. Heaven for me!! I glanced around and most of the folks were NOT watching the game or enjoying beisbol’s oldest park. They were tweeting, texting, i-m-ing or maybe furtively pleasuring themselves. What in the wide, wide world of sports is wrong with these people?

      Like

  7. any1mark66
    08/30/2015 • 19:49

    Eternal youth would probably get old. Everything around you would perish and you would be left. The suspicion of never aging others would hold against you. Hmmm, I wonder if it would taste good.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      08/30/2015 • 20:35

      Well, yep, there’s the vampire legend again … and the vampire’s paradox. That the world gets old and you never do, until finally, you don’t want to be in the world any more.

      Like

  8. Jaspa
    08/30/2015 • 17:34

    It’d give me a better chance of completing my Bucket List, Marilyn!

    Like

  9. Raewyn's Photos
    08/30/2015 • 17:23

    I have always wanted to trade in this body for a newer model, but like you I want to keep my knowledge and memories – carefully selected of course.

    Like

  10. bobmielke
    08/30/2015 • 15:01

    The thought of eternal youth and living forever scares the hell out of me. If life on earth is all we have to look forward to let me off the bus. I want a beginning, middle and end not stuck in a time loop like “Groundhog Day”.

    Like

  11. OnChi
    08/30/2015 • 13:30

    Love your photos! I agree that the old age wisdom is something to keep. That’s a very good point!

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      08/30/2015 • 13:46

      Thank you! I paid in blood and pain to become what I am. I would love to not hurt anymore. To not be riddled with arthritis and all the other crap, but in the end, I’m with Descartes … “I think, therefore I am.”

      Liked by 1 person

  12. jacquelineobyikocha
    08/30/2015 • 13:03

    I totally agree with your train of thought and I think even vampires will get weary, eventually, when there are no fresh blood to feast on.

    Like

  13. lifelessons
    08/30/2015 • 12:56

    Doesn’t it smack of vampires??? I seem to remember they get pretty tired of the whole mess, but maybe that has more to do with drinking blood than eternal youth.

    Like

    • Marilyn Armstrong
      08/30/2015 • 13:47

      Yes, indeed it does. I’ve always loved the vampire legend and the modern variations on it … but recognized that forever is too long for me. Anyway, nobody said “the fountain of youth” is water, did they.

      Like

  14. DailyMusings
    08/30/2015 • 12:55

    Totally agree- been there done that and want to keep it!

    Like

  15. angloswiss
    08/30/2015 • 12:34

    I seem to have been there and done it before. I still havn’t tried the waters, but do I keep my life’s experience that I now have, you know being golden oldie and seeing things from perhaps a more mature perspective, and just let the body be like it was when I was young and lovely, or does the brain go back as well. If that is the case, no thank you. Let me keep my aches and pains and all my life’s experiences, you learn every day, but unlearning is not my thing.

    Like