When a man is young he is overcome with energy and seeks release. One moment he is risking his life at a new sport, and the next he is deeply absorbed in a book. New friends and women are drawn to him for he is generous and laughing, but his passion leads him to argue, and in its wake his heart is ashamed. He yearns, when he hears stories of men whose lives were as brilliant as they were brief, to find glory, and gives no thought to safety and family. He is the subject of gossip after he is gone. Youth is the time when a man learns what he cannot.
An old man’s spirit grows feeble; he seeks peace in his surroundings. His mind being tranquil, he shuns heavy pursuits. He avoids hassling others, and thinks often of faded friends. He agitates on the flow of time, and even there he is learning to let go. The old are as superior in wisdom as the young are in motion.
*playing with Kenko’s A Time for Ruin
