Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1914-07-03
TWO VIEWS Of LIFE
Good and Bad Way Of Looking
at Ones Surroundings.
Possible, by One Method. Altogether
to % Away with Boredom, While
the Other One Invites the
Dreaded Addiction.

. . Is .
There Is a fiat, unadventurous way
OF looking at life which CLOSES eyery-
thing with an embarrassing familiar
ity. This is the outcome of that
spirit OF tired old age which Is just
as characteristic Of certain youths and
maidens as Of the people whose actual
days have been long in the land.
There is a manner Of viewing life,
which imparts fresh tints to the ia
miliar, which means never-endinG
succession Of exquisite and vitality In
teresting pictures, and which alto
gether scotches that bugbear bore
dom, II 1t does not indeed deny exist
ence to the dull creature.
This Ia an attribute of eternal YOUTH
which Is just as much at home with
gray hairs and trembling limbs as
with rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes.
You are free to make your own
choice between one attitude and the
other--but always the direction Of the
business must come from yoar own
heart.
After all, what are boredom, pes
simism, cynicism and the rest OF the
DOGGY train with which men fright
en- themselves into misery, but the re-
suit of concentration on one poor.
puny, petty personality and that one
your own? ;.
Like mice on a treadmill, we SOL
EMMY work day by day in fatuous,
never.ending circle, sick with famil-
iarity of the procedure, drugged with
the stupidity of the affair. But, un-
like the mice, we are inhabitants OF
no combining cage, but are free to cir
die the very earth with our footsteps
If we put effort and concentration into
the task. .-
For no man Is there space allotted
where solely his interest must ex.
pend itself. Circumstances may seem
to contine certain people to limited
surroundings, or perhaps 1t would be
more just to say that certain people
have not sufficient strength Of mind
and of will to evade certain circum-
stances. But, even so, there is suff-
Gent material in any street of any
small country town to keep real OBJ
server interested for the space Of his
natural life.
One mans eyes will find perpetual
interest and stimulant In contem-
plation of the varying shadows, which
chase one another across q Held, In
the study of the shading lights which
each hour brings. in observation Of eff
fects and contrasts.
Another man will know only that
the hedges bounding the field have
been familiar to him all his life. that
he has trod the pathway which cuts
across from stile to stile, since tod
ding. days. Therefore, he will tell
you, beauty cannot possibly dwell
there, SO far az he is concerned. His
soul signs for the remote Bermudas.
the farthest Andes, and he is con-
| WINGED OF being able to track beauty
to her lair in any other spot but the
exact one on which destiny has cruel
ly placed him. 81.
AS he is wilfully closing his eyes,
| what matters 1t tnat spring comes
dancing with her daintiest gifts; that
summer wraps the land in her warm
embrace; that autumn brings her
rudy dyes for wondrous transforma-
tons, or that winter sets all a.spark-
ling with her white magic?
It is all one to him, for he Is suf-
fering from self-imposed blindness.
The habit of self-interest may have
absorbed all available thought, until
life refuses to express itself In
terms other than those Of the first per.
son. w e
Whatever the reason, the disease ia
a deadly one which confines interest
to an ever-narrowing circle. Irene
Weston in the Chicago American.