ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO RISK IT ALL ON A DREAM ??? Part 2

Tonight/ We are young

Two things struck me about the fountain of youth stories; you had to go far away to find it and by the time you did you had already lost your youth. The stories reminded me of the story about the old man and his sons. He told them that to find treasure they had to dig and dig and though they didn’t find treasure they found something just as precious. All the stories about the fountain of youth tell us to go far away. Far away from ourselves and all the things we thought we couldn’t do. Ethiopia is just next door to Kenya but it’s still so hard to get to, how much harder would it have been for aGreek living thousands of years ago? He would have to hide away his fears about life, he would be told by people that what he was doing was stupid and would end in disaster. That nothing good would come of it and still he would have had to believe in himself. He would set aside his fears and go about organizing his life because it was his. He would set off not knowing when he would return or what he would find in front of him. He would leap into the dark with no net and no compass.

so if by the time the bar closes /and you feel like falling down / I’ll carry you home

While on his way there he would find adventures and stories. He would make friends and make sacrifices, he would live life and in the end he wouldn’t find the fountain and would come back tired and old but he would be young. He would have known he lived life on his own terms for a little. That he believed in himself enough to do what he thought was right. In his memories, in his trials he would be forever young. David Foster Wallace once wrote that “our endless and impossible journey towards home is in fact our home.”

So let’s set the world on fire/ we can burn brighter the sun

That may have been the real secret about the fountain of youth. That it is not located in a place but it is found in an attempt. Nobody who is successful had 100% of people believing in him. They were probably told they couldn’t do it. I say there is no formula for happiness. Let us chose a path and walk it to the very end. All the stories about digging for the fountain of youth may have been trying to tell us that the digging is its own reward. Have the courage to try what you really want to try. To be the person you want to be. Take a risk and dig and dig and before you know it soft fruit and food will fall from heaven into your hands. Maybe we can’t be forever young but we won’t know if we don’t at least try.

GRAG