{"id":44,"date":"2015-07-06T22:12:37","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T22:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jessicaeblack.wordpress.com\/?p=44"},"modified":"2015-07-06T22:12:37","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T22:12:37","slug":"youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessicaeblack.org\/everythingelse\/2015\/07\/06\/youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am reading David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks<\/a>, and I’ve just reached the place where he quotes Conrad’s\u00a0Youth<\/a>.<\/em> \u00a0Now, I have always\u00a0loved<\/strong> that story. \u00a0I memorized my then favorite quote when I was twenty, making my way about Europe on a rail pass:<\/p>\n

“I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more\u2014the feeling that I could last forever,\u00a0outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils,\u00a0to love,\u00a0to vain\u00a0effort\u2014to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that\u00a0with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires\u2014and expires, too soon, too soon\u2014before life itself.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At twenty, I felt those lines so fiercely, an anticipated nostalgia along with the angst of\u00a0missing out,<\/em> of somewhere choosing the wrong path because I simply did not have time to take\u00a0all<\/strong> paths.
\nMitchell does not mention those particular lines. \u00a0He chose the final two paragraphs of the story; I have them marked in my copy too. \u00a0The ones that caught my attention today, for their truth\u2014<\/p>\n

“… tell me, wasn’t that the best time, that time when we were young at sea; young and had nothing, on the sea that gives nothing, except hard knocks\u2014and sometimes a chance to feel your strength<\/strong>\u2014that only\u2014what you all regret?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A chance to feel your strength.
\nSo hard to come by, so difficult to earn. \u00a0Because before you can\u00a0feel\u00a0<\/em>your strength, you’ve got to build<\/em> it, and that takes time, pressure, pain, and courage… \u00a0and opportunity. \u00a0Most things most young people do these days do not take any particular physical strength or courage. \u00a0Those that could do (such as most sports) tend to purposefully avoid any potential danger, de-emphasize loss (everyone’s a winner, everyone gets a trophy) and make it as easy as possible (special equipment, water breaks every time you turn around. \u00a0I don’t know how I survived without the regulation bottle of water when I was a child). \u00a0And that’s just physical challenge and strength. \u00a0Where do you find moral challenge, not the quotidian moral challenges we all face (don’t cheat, don’t shoplift, don’t be spiteful and a bad loser), but big ones where an error on your part can mean the destruction of the team. \u00a0Where the Enemy is obvious and right and wrong can pretend to be black and white, and it’s the little choices where things are grey and murky and potentially dangerous.
\nI believe though, that it’s the\u00a0physical<\/em> test of strength, the fight, the danger, and the ultimate victory where the strength of youth (and perhaps beyond) is most purely felt. \u00a0Physical challenges simplify life and allow you to focus entirely on the moment. \u00a0The feat of strength becomes moral in and of itself, through the discipline that brought you to the moment of strength.
\nThere are activities that bring you to that physical test that allows you to feel your strength<\/em>, but not many. \u00a0I imagine even sailors, nowadays, find it rare… at least, the sailors on the giant merchant ships and military carriers. \u00a0Perhaps the military, at times. \u00a0Martial arts. \u00a0Certainly riding race horses. \u00a0Other sports. \u00a0But most people will never get the chance.
\nIt’s part of the attraction of militancy, war, ISIS… well that is a theme for another blog. \u00a0But certainly part of what makes people turn to ISIS is the search for the opportunity to test their strength. That and the allure of the\u00a0story.<\/em> \u00a0Somehow ISIS manages to tell a better story, and part of that story is the promised opportunity to feel your strength.
\nWhat else does Mitchell quote? \u00a0The final lines:<\/p>\n

“And we all nodded at him: the man of finance, the man of accounts, the man of law,\u00a0we all nodded at him over the polished table that like a still sheet of brown water reflected our faces,\u00a0lined, wrinkled; our faces marked by toil, by deceptions, by success, by love;\u00a0our weary eyes looking still, looking always, looking anxiously for something out of life,\u00a0that while it is expected is already gone\u2014has passed unseen, in a sigh, in a flash\u2014together with the youth,\u00a0with the strength, with the romance of illusions.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am reading David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks, and I’ve just reached the place where he quotes Conrad’s\u00a0Youth. \u00a0Now, I have always\u00a0loved that story. \u00a0I memorized my then favorite quote when I was twenty, making my way about Europe on a rail pass: “I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back… Read More »Youth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[6,7],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-reading","tag-the-bone-clocks","tag-youth"],"yoast_head":"\nYouth 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