Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-30
SUNDAY MORNING TALK.
Our Human Islands.

Did you ever 1--we or S010urn on an lSlanQ!
If so. can you remember lying upon the
sands some midsummer day and listening
to the gentle splashing' of the waters or
watching the far-away sails? Your idle
revery made more acute your sense of de-
tachment from the mainland of Isolation
from the great world of affairs, of being
shut in with your own thoughts and emo
lions, and as it Were cut off from former
associations and interests. That must have
been the feeling of the great Napoleon whom
exiled on the Island of st. Helena, and that
must have made the punishment peculiarly
bitter for one who had figured con-
spcuousy in European politics.
Herein is a parable. We are all more or
less islanders. We send out our little boats
that meet, salute and pass one another and
perhaps exchange commodities but still we
are separated by great CULTS and 1nlets
from our fellow men. We live under the
same roof with our kindred, work In
the same store with those whom we have
known from childhood, we go In and out on
the trains year after year with the same
people, and yet how far apart may be
from them in al the movement of our inner
life, in our hopes and ideals, in our
thought of God and duty and heaven.
Scientists tell us that even the .iny mole
cules do not touch one another but whirl
about in space in their indie endent orbits.
and how few human lives really meet and
melt into a common purpose
from some points OF view IN
deed is this isolation. 1t certainly makes a
great appeal for charity in our judgment of
others Said woman who had recently
lost her husband II am sorry to decline in
vitations to social functions I don't want
to be selfish in my grief, but whenever l
go to places where l used to go with him,
the sense of his absence is keen that l
can hardly bear it. 1t seems as if | were
living on an island. My life is so partial,
so incomplete, so broken, that [ cannot
10
pleasures and merrymakings. My greater
half is gone. People about me do not be-
gin to realize how far away in spirit l am
from them" This widow represents the
great army of the bereaved, toward whom
we who have not thus suffered should eX-
tend the utmost consideration and not let
our own joy in earthly things jar upon their
lonely spirits
Sympathy and tact are needed too
There comes a time when every growing
boy draws apart from his mother She
finds IL hard to understand his reserve; she
yearns for the old confidential relationship.
But let her not chafe under the new cond-
tons. Her boy is undergoing those pangs
of self-discovery which accompany the first
experience of adolescence; he is coming to
knowledge of his own individuality; he
will have to dwell apart for a time on his
island. But if he has been surrounded by
right influences hitherto he will in due time
re-establish the precious relationship with
his mother though a different plane.
it S-II COMES nome. having competed her
college course. She is no longer a girl but
a young woman. 1t is hard for her to ad-
just herself to her old place In the family
Her parents feel difference in her Mis-
understandings may easily grow up if the
parents insist on too great close conformity
to former practices. Give her time to work
out her personal problem. AS she retres
into her island, believe that she will learn
lessons there to be gained nowhere else.
On the other hand, people conscious of the
between them ha-
ware of becoming narrow and provincial
One whose own life has become sharply de-
fined from others should not be proud of
his isolation nor let the spirit of reticence
and detachment grow upon him. We are
stlll part of the human race, sharers in
the great elemental human passions. We
must not become hermits and anchorites.
The last book of the Bible was written by
a man living on an island, who apparently
fretted sometimes over his limitations and
looked eagerly forward to the time when
there should be mo more sea" cutting him
on from continents and empires And the
ideal for all of US sooner or later is so to
INK our lives to others that, without sacri-
fcing our personality, we shall feel the
thrill and inspiration of kinship with hu-
mainly. That time ought to come sooner or
later for all of us. AS poet has said
When we are dead, when you and are dead
Have rent and tossed aside each earthly fetter
Have wiped the grave dust from our wondering
eyes,
And stand together fronting the sunrise.
think that we shall know each other better
But we need not wait for death to bring
us into closer, tenderer relations to others
While we are still island dwellers we may
moist our beacons and send forth over the
waves the CLEAN of friendly light
THE PARSON