Youth: The Greatest Commodity of Life
Read somewhere in the distant past was an expression hard to forget. Someone said, “Youth is the greatest commodity of life; it is a shame it must be wasted on young people.”
It is doubtful that the features of youth are really wasted when people are young. Possibly another way of thinking is that any of us when we were young, or the young of the present, simply don’t appreciate the richness or the qualities of life, which are true of young people. We have to become older in years to really appreciate what it was like to be young. I remember someone else expressed a wish that they could have been born aged and traveled toward youth during his lifetime. It doesn’t take much thinking to realize that arrangement, while attractive at first consideration, would not be expedient in living a useful or productive life. Our God of Heaven created human life and we would all do well to accept and honor the way He determined life should progress. How we treat our bodies is a great contributor to the quality of life we enjoy. This point embraces how we treat our bodies from the days of our youth into older years. Just recently I used the expression attributed to Mickey Mantle in his later years when he said, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have treated my body better.”
That sentiment expressed by the great baseball player, and attributed to several others, is possibly embraced by most of us, as we grow older in years. Actions once performed with ease become more difficult because of failure to treat the body properly right in earlier age. As a young person, it is easy to fail to notice the infirmities of those older in years. Let me explain: In restaurants and other public places, I notice those who walk with hesitancy or have trouble getting in and out of their car or seats in which they were sitting; I see the people who are in wheel chairs; I see those who use devices to stabilize their posture or their walk. That has not always been the case. Why do you suppose that was? It was because we are young and those attributes of frailties of life are not true of us; and while conscious thought is not given to the possibility of such, we don’t think it will ever be. The way we treat our bodies determines nearly every aspect of our feelings and actions. Let’s look at some of our concerns: Tiredness; lack of ambition; disinterest in matters of great importance; inability to begin and finish tasks. These and many others are subject to the condition of our bodies.
Long recognized as essential ingredients to a healthy body and a proper function in the activities of life are at least three factors we are taught from early age. In addition, these aspects are set before us each day in advertisements on TV and the print media. Impressed on our minds is the necessity of a proper diet. Now, at this point, I question what a proper diet is. Without a discussion, just let me say that for every suggestion of what is good there will appear one that says it is unhealthy. Then there is the matter of sufficient exercise. Thousands of us who need more exercise fill stadiums and cheer for a few who are in good physical shape. In addition to diet and exercise, we must consider the need for rest or sleep. Without these ingredients the body will not function to the degree of proficiency necessary to a productive life.
Listen to Thomas Jefferson, one of our nation’s founding fathers, when he said, “If the body be feeble, the mind will not be strong.” And far back in the early 1800’s, this observation was made: “The body too has its rights; and it will have them; they cannot be trampled on without peril. The body ought to be the soul’s best friend. Many good men, however, have neglected to make it such; so it has become [instead] a fiend and has plagued them.” Quoted from
1827. One Alexander Lowen gave a practical and simple remedy to the production of a healthy body when he said, “A person who doesn’t breathe deeply reduces the life of his body. If he doesn’t move freely, he restricts the life of his body. If he doesn’t feel fully, he narrows the life of his body. And if his self-expression is constricted, he limits the life of his body.”
No longer do I tell anyone not to get old – that is inevitable if we continue to live; often I advise those with whom I meet and speak, “Stay young as long as your can.”