Y – Fountain of Youth

Y – Fountain of Youth

In the early 16th century, Ponce de León went in search of the Fountain of Youth. He found Florida instead, though if you go to St. Augustine Florida they actually have the fountain of youth that he found. You can even try the water. SPOILER! – It doesn’t work.

People continue to look for this mythical fountain of youth. Many profess to have found it. Some in purifying springs. Others in all types of herbal medicines and drinks. And still, others find it in a plethora of cosmetics or when able to afford it plastic surgery.

The bottom line is that other than in science fiction movies, there is no true fountain of youth.  

But what if there was and you could access it freely? Youth has many definitions. It can be the recent past or the long-ago past. And if you chose to become youthful again, in what way would you like to become youthful? 

Physically? So that you would look like you were before all that gray hair and receding hairline cropped in, or when you could lift weights other than your own body to get out of a chair, and when you actively played lots of sports instead of only watching them on TV. 

Mentally? When you were great with numbers and could figure out things in your head, or when you actually remembered why you went into a room when you got there, or when you had an imagination and you weren’t stuck in a daily routine that you had to follow.

Age-wise? When you were a kid and everything was done for you, or when you made all those wrong decisions about your life and get a chance to change them, or when you were a young adult and the world was your oyster and you could choose to do anything you want. 

Would taking from the fountain of youth, allow you to remember all the memories that you have now, so that not only would be younger, but you would be much wiser? Or would you have to start off fresh? And would all of the people you associate with that are your friends and family be willing to drink from the fountain of youth too? That could create a lot of conflicts if you got to become young again, yet your closest friends and family were all anti-youthers and preferred not to risk going back to their youth. What would it be like if you were younger than your kids? 

This is why finding the fountain of youth has not been easy. It’s one thing to wish and dream to become youthful, but with that contract you sign, there are a lot of stipulations and consequences that are in the fine print. 

And when you think about it, how many bodies of water do you know of that are pure. Everything we drink has to go through mountains of chemicals and filters to prevent spoilage. Imagine what would happen to you if the water you drank from the Fountain of Youth got spoiled, possibly through all of the man-made things we do to screw up our environment. I wouldn’t want to have that youth thrust upon me. 

As I’ve reiterated many a time in my wishful writing, “Be careful what you wish for, for you may get your wish, but not exactly in the way you expected it.” Enjoy who you are in your oldth. Let the search for the Fountain of Youth be just a dream. ‘Nuff said.