Obi Wan said he felt a great disturbance in the force when Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star.  He was right; however, he was also a movie character and a Jedi bad-ass.  Real people can’t sense stuff like that, but they do occasionally get a feeling they haven’t felt in years, like Vader did when Obi Wan was on the Death Star.

I have wondered often what makes someone old; why do people grow up?  They obviously age physically, but what happens that makes them think about things as an adult.  There are advantages to being an adult, and some to being an eternal adolescent as well.

Today I was transported backwards about 15 years for a few minutes.

I sat there for a second and went…..”wow, so this is what it feels like to be young”.  Young is full of anxiety and anticipation.  It is uncertain.

Adulthood is more self-assured, less explosive, wiser.  I think wisdom is often just the realization that everything is dependent on time; the answer today is not always the answer tomorrow….and yet we must still have answers.

Adulthood is repetitive.  Youth hasn’t had time to be yet.

Youth creates your pains.  Adulthood is learning to live with them.

Youth dreams and dreams are quick.  Adults do things, and that takes a lot longer.

Youth is subsidized by adults.  Youth is not-sustainable for this reason.  Adults realize that nothing gets done unless they do it.  Youths are mistaken in the amount of effort it takes to make life happen.

Youth is beautiful and beauty is very powerful.  Adulthood realizes beauty is persuasive, but not always useful.

Youth burns.  Adults realize nothing burns completely.  Be careful what you burn.

Youth lives in a world of ideas, since they have little yet of life to fill their heads.  Adults live in a more concrete world, as reality tends to swamp idealism as the years stack up.

Adulthood is overly cautious.  Youth is rash as it doesn’t yet realize how fragile and precious life is.

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The point is that today I felt young again for a second as something old was made current and I was transported backwards in time.  What an odd feeling…like it was happening to another person.

My distant past (before Atlanta and grad school, those years when I traveled, and before)……is so far removed from my present life that I remember it like a movie.  That person I was no longer exists.  But he did for a few minutes today.

I can’t say much was better about the former Elliott, except that he was younger, better looking, more full of himself, and had more hair….I guess not everything is better now 😉

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