Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-26
The Commonplace.
BY DIR. FRANK CRANE.
Copyright. 1913. by Frank Crane.)

The people of the world may be divided
into two classes. those who find their hap
piness in the usual and those who find
their happiness in the unusual
The first are as rule healthy. content
ed, helpful and optimistic.
The second are as a rule morbid rest
less. pessimistic and nuisances to all
around them.
The most important thing for human
being to learn is it not. is how to live his
life with a maximum of contentment and
care of body and mind, and the minimum
of friction?
Those have discovered what is perhaps
the greatest secret of existence who have
come to realize that 1t is In the common
place that one is to find permanent salts
faction. and that the extraordinary.
strange and occasional sources of pleas
ure are to be regarded as matter by
the way, not to be taken account of in
their program.
Yet the majority Of silly mortals never
learn this Consequently most people are
more or less soured, peevish and discon-
tented.
1t is the duty of our teachers to lead us
back to the enjoyment of life's everyday
ness.
The sum of culture of wisdom and of
intelligent experience consists in an APP
probation OF the ordinary events and cir
cumstances and in proper discounting
of the occasional
The happiest wife and mother is the one
whose delight is In the daily round of the
home the companionship Of her husband.
the care and guidance of her children.
The unhappiest is the wife who is long
ing to escape this. who calls 1t drudgery
and whose pleasures are found only In the
occasional excursion, theater or social d.
version.
The happiest business man is the man
| to whom business is fun. The unhappiest
is the man who looks upon his occupation
as a grind and whose pleasure is in
breaking away.
The happiest workman is the one who
enjoys his work; the unhappiest is the
one whose work worries him and who is
always looking forward to getting away
from Ii.
The great sources Of human joy are all
commonplace.
They are nature. love and self-expres-
sion work and play. Anybody can have
these. They are as common as dirt. They
are as near to the reach of the section
| hand as to the reach OF the railway presi-
dent. They lie as close to the grocer as
| to the college professor.
| Any one can learn how to get the honey
of JOY from nature, from her sun and
[ wave and field. Any one can love and
tenement as in mansion. Any one can
| find work to do and games to play there
| by Two clerks playing seven-up on a
| soap box i'm a back room can get pre-
cisely as much fun out of the game as
two dress-suited Charles in plushlined
clubhouse.
The cheaper and commoner thing the
| more joy juice In it. For there is more
exhilaration. take 1t by and large. In
| water than In all varieties of booze; more
good feelings produced by bread and but
ter than by cake and bar lie due; more
comfort in loving your wife and playing
with your children than in loving other
mems wives and regarding children as a
bore.
call a man truly converted. or en-
lightened or born again, or emancipated,
or whatever expression suits you. when
he has weeded out of his soul the lust for
the exceptional, and when he has learned
that the greatest fun in the world is to
live and enjoy those pleasures OF life that
are common to all the race.
In times past people could see religion
only in extraordinary things. In miracles
abnormal saints and esoteric tommyrot;
now the world is awakening to see that
it is the daily existence that is made free
and joyous by faith.
Happiness is a fruit that grows low
along the ground: little children and wise
men pick II. Fools are looking up at the
trees.