Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-05-09
WING in an air castle Is about as
profitable as owning a half in
terest in a rainbow. 1t is no
more nourishing than a dinner

profitable as owning a half in
terest in a rainbow. 1t is no
more nourishing than dinner
of twelve courses-eaten in a
dream. Air castles are built of golden
moments of time, and their only value
is in the raw material thus rendered
valueless.
The atmosphere Of air castles Is heavy
and stupefying with the incense Of
vague hopes and phantom ideals. In
them man ulls himself into dreaming
inactivity with the songs of the mighty
deeds he Is going to do, the great in
fuence he some day will have, the vast
wealth that will be his some time,
somehow, somewhere, in the rosy, sun
lit days of the future. The architec-
tural error about air castles is that the
their gilded turrets in the clouds in
stead of upward from a solid, firm
foundation Of purpose and energy.
This diet Of mental lotus leaves is
mental narcotic, not a stimulant.
Ambition when welded to tireless en-
ergy is great thing and good thing,
but in itself it amounts to little. Man
cannot raise himself to higher things
by what he would like to accomplish,
but only by what he endeavored to &C.
complish. To be of value ambition must
ever be made manifest in zeal, in deter
mfnation, in energy consecrated to an
ideal. If it be thus REINFORCED, thus
%hn% III }y, o{, oot1o re- int,
,nothingness, and the individual stands
on a new strong foundation Of solid
rock whereon day by day and stone by
stone he can rear mighty material
structure Of life work to last through
time and eternity.
The air castle ever represents the
work Of an architect without builder;
1t means plans never put into eXecu-
ton. They tell us that man is the
architect of his own fortunes. But If
he be merely architect he will make
only an air castle Of his life. He
should be architect and builder too.
Living in the future is living in an
air castle. Tomorrow is the grave
where the dreams of the dreamer. the
toiler who tolls not, are buried. The
man who says he will lead a new and
better life tomorrow, who promises
great things for the future and yet
does nothing in the present to make
that future possible, is living in an air
castle. In his arrogance he is attempt
ing to perform miracle: he is seeking
to turn water into wine, to have har-
vest without seedtime, to have an end
without beginning.
If we would make our lives worthy
Of us, grand and noble, solid and i'm
pregnable, we must forsake air castles
Of dreaming for strongholds Of doing.
Every man with an ideal has right to
live in the glow and inspiration Of it
and to picture the joy Of attainment as
the tired traveller fills his mind with
the thought Of the brightness Of home,
to quicken his steps and to make the
weary miles seem shorter, but the
worker should never really worry
about the future; think little Of it ex
cept for inspiration, TO determine his
course, as mariners study the stars, to
make his plans wisely and to prepare
for that future by making each sepa-
rate day the best and truest that he
can.
Let US live up to the fullness of our
possibilities each day. Man has only
one day Of life-today. He did live
yesterday, he may live tomorrow, but
he has only today.
Let us cease saying IF were" and
say ever II am" Let us stop living in
the subjunctive mood and begin to live
In the indicative.
The one great defense Of humanity
against the charge Of unfulflled duties
is "'lack Of time.' The constant clam
oring for time would be pathetic were
it not for the. fact that most individ-
uals throw away more Of it than they