Gray
As this year comes to a close, I wanted my final posting to encompass all three aspects of Gray: West Point, aging, and ambiguity. At the same time.
A friend of mine gave me a bag of goodies the other day – a Christmas gift, pile of old PW, New Yorker, and Pages magazines, and a small piece of cardboard. The cardboard had a quotation on it. I think my friend gave it to me because of the quote. Or maybe because of who said the quote. Or maybe a combination of the two. Or maybe she had been using it as a bookmark, and it had accidentally ended up in the bag, a blue plastic tote which stated: “I’d rather be reading.”
The piece of cardboard looked like it might have once been the side of a tea bag box. It did not seem like a new tea bag box either. The color was a bit faded, and there were remnants of scotch tape on the edges where my friend must have at one time posted the saying up somewhere for others to see. Now I guess she was passing it along to me. Or not. I still think it may have accidentally ended up in the bag.
But presciently.
The quotation struck me. But what struck me even more was who had purportedly said it. I wager that you will not guess who said it. In fact, I so doubted that the person whose name was listed had actually uttered these words I did an online search to see what I could find. I Googled part of the quotation with the speaker’s name. I got multiple hits. The quotation, in a variety of forms, came up on several different online quotation banks under the person’s name.
Of course, that doesn’t really prove anything, but multiple people seem to think this famous person actually uttered or wrote these following words of wisdom:
“Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interests wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair… these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.
“Whatever your years, there is in every being’s heart the love of wonder, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for ‘What Next,’ and the joy and the game of life.
“You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; 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 you are young.”
Wow.
Believe it or not, the originator of these words is Douglas MacArthur.
Douglas MacArthur. 1880-1964. USMA Class of 1903. Superintendent of West Point. General of the Army. That Douglas MacArthur.
As a young plebe, I had to memorize other of his famous sayings:
“Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.”
“In war there is no substitute for victory.”
"Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that, upon other fields, on other days, will bear the fruits of victory."
Those kinds of sayings.
Never anything about growing old. Or staying young.
The closest I can remember MacArthur ever saying anything about getting old was that melodramatic quote during his farewell address to Congress in 1951: “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
I kind of like the tea box quote myself.
It is inspiring in a real world, catholic sort of way. We may not all serve in the military or fight wars on actual battlefields, but as long as we are alive, it is inevitable that our bodies will grow old.
Our hearts and our souls, it would seem, are another matter. One left up to us.
May 2007 be a year of faith, self-confidence, and hope.
May you be… forever young.
A friend of mine gave me a bag of goodies the other day – a Christmas gift, pile of old PW, New Yorker, and Pages magazines, and a small piece of cardboard. The cardboard had a quotation on it. I think my friend gave it to me because of the quote. Or maybe because of who said the quote. Or maybe a combination of the two. Or maybe she had been using it as a bookmark, and it had accidentally ended up in the bag, a blue plastic tote which stated: “I’d rather be reading.”
The piece of cardboard looked like it might have once been the side of a tea bag box. It did not seem like a new tea bag box either. The color was a bit faded, and there were remnants of scotch tape on the edges where my friend must have at one time posted the saying up somewhere for others to see. Now I guess she was passing it along to me. Or not. I still think it may have accidentally ended up in the bag.
But presciently.
The quotation struck me. But what struck me even more was who had purportedly said it. I wager that you will not guess who said it. In fact, I so doubted that the person whose name was listed had actually uttered these words I did an online search to see what I could find. I Googled part of the quotation with the speaker’s name. I got multiple hits. The quotation, in a variety of forms, came up on several different online quotation banks under the person’s name.
Of course, that doesn’t really prove anything, but multiple people seem to think this famous person actually uttered or wrote these following words of wisdom:
“Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interests wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair… these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.
“Whatever your years, there is in every being’s heart the love of wonder, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for ‘What Next,’ and the joy and the game of life.
“You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; 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 you are young.”
Wow.
Believe it or not, the originator of these words is Douglas MacArthur.
Douglas MacArthur. 1880-1964. USMA Class of 1903. Superintendent of West Point. General of the Army. That Douglas MacArthur.
As a young plebe, I had to memorize other of his famous sayings:
“Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.”
“In war there is no substitute for victory.”
"Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that, upon other fields, on other days, will bear the fruits of victory."
Those kinds of sayings.
Never anything about growing old. Or staying young.
The closest I can remember MacArthur ever saying anything about getting old was that melodramatic quote during his farewell address to Congress in 1951: “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
I kind of like the tea box quote myself.
It is inspiring in a real world, catholic sort of way. We may not all serve in the military or fight wars on actual battlefields, but as long as we are alive, it is inevitable that our bodies will grow old.
Our hearts and our souls, it would seem, are another matter. One left up to us.
May 2007 be a year of faith, self-confidence, and hope.
May you be… forever young.
posted by delta at 5:56 PM
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