As With Most Adages, I Am Strong Enough to Confess...Well, I Was Sort of Right. Kind Of. Maybe? But Very Close.

The quote is "Youth is wasted on the young," and I've always ascribed it to George Bernard Shaw. Of course, when I was thinking of the adage, I wanted to find it's true origin and, alas, I learned that it is more complicated than I first realized. The premise is the same, but the origins are a little more sketchy than originally intended.

Youth, it is true, is wasted on the youth. 

Attributed to Irish wits, both George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, there's never been a precise quotation. There has, however, been reference to Shaw saying,

"Youth," he replied, "Is the most beautiful thing in this world - and what a pity that it has to be wasted on children!"

Touché.

It was Bernard Shaw in a newspaper column (or so it is reported).

I was thinking of it last night, as high school friends and I talked on the phone and started thinking about our teens and twenties, and we reflected on whether or not we made the best decisions. We went back and forth on all of that, especially in relation to working with young people today.

I was of the demeanor that youth today have no patience for adults. The way they see it, we have created a world for them that is full of lies, selfishness, deceit, political parties, anger, a refusal to see history, and stupidity. They'd rather get us out of the way. Still, others don't think it is that bad. I guess this is interesting fodder for Gen X types who had childhood in the 70s and 80s without too much crazy drama. Kids today are normed with school shootings, testing anarchy, politics, and now viruses. They know 2011 as normal. They are post-post the histories, and with the Internet, just over it. They want better. With cell-phones in their hands, too, they want it all pre-ordered and on its way from Amazon with a snap of fingers.

And still, here I am thinking about this, as I guide decisions for the teenage and twenty-something crowd. I told my friends, "Maybe it is time to give the reigns to the next generation. I mean, we served our time. We did what we would: The Real World, ET, MTV, etc. - we are the entertained culture who had a pretty remarkable world (I'm reading Douglas Coupland here in full-force). Yet, there's the Baby Boomer, 60s, and 70s crew still hanging on to different times and ways of knowing. Then there are those that cling with all their might to mythologies of racial, cultural, and social power that their people built (god dammit it) and others take away (because their ancestors took it away from those they exploited). All so fascinating.

I'm not sure, however, youth is wasted on the young, as much as it deposits naivety grounded for jealousy - aw, to be so young. I think it is more that the present and future are really out of our control and only time (and historians) will tell. Youth is gifted to the young...a present for more optimism, hope, trust, and curiosity. Age, then, is burdened on the old. Ah, fuck. Another day to deal with all this shit. I just want a beach and some margaritas.

Even so, I'm hoping and optimistic that the great American social experiment will continue in a favorable direction, despite the setbacks we witness daily.. I have my doubts given the way some people act, promote, carry on, and vindictively choose what I don't see as good, but I really think that youthfulness, integrity, ambition, drive, and knowledge will lead us ahead....long after I'm gone.

I can only hope so.

Yes, youth is wasted on the young.  Thank God.