Omaha daily bee., 1915-02-17
Our Everyday Life
by BEATRICE FAIRFAX.

Does excitement mean living? Is It the
actual foundation OF life? or are the
simple affections and loves. the honest
enthusiasm the everyday interests and
the ever stimulating routine OF ambition
and work the things that make NE?
Very often on laying down a best
seller" in which tho eScitable heroine
takes all sorts Of world tours OF adven-
ture and emotion we have on empty
sort OF feeling as to our own lives.
Good heavens" thinks susan. moth
Ing like that ever happens to me. My
life's such a simple thing that Il really
isn't worth the living. It's Just like
dozens Of others. all off the same pattern,
all perfectly negative"
But Il doesn't occur to Susan that the
chapter OF incidents about which she has
been reading, even II true to life, IL n
rather highly-colored cross-section COW
erng only weeks, months or years A
life that is ell jumps into big things and
out again. from the cradle TO the grave.
would be very agonizng affair. II
would be soul racking soul stirring and
so full Of emotional crises that the per-
son to whom they were happening would
never get n chance TO sit back and en-
! Joy things that were happening to her.
! The fun flavor OF a South African
I peach IL not TO be obtained by swel-
/ lowing II whole The recipe for reading
/ good books has to be followed. They
! y louId be tasted. chewed and dlgested.'
/ SO with everything In life n one means
I 20 enjoy It.
| LIVES that look terribly dull when
| viewed by the romantic young woman or
adventurous gentleman. who has Just
been reading the latest thriller. probably
have enough spread out throughout their
three score and ten TO pack a play or
movie or novelette, fun Of human in
terest.
Mental spasms are not necessary nor
are wonderful soul thrills. Most of Us
| show moderation and self-cobtrol In our
1 affairs. We don't have to wreck a life
or two in order to fear our own existence
on tho ruins. ToTtunng decisions as L"
right and wrong and great moments OF
agonizing sclf-sacrfice come 20 few OF
US Great loves like those OF Tristan
and Isolde or Petrarch and Laura are
not happening by dozens I'm any COM
raunity. The miseries that beset lee
Miserables." the frehtfui Temptations
which made Lucretla Borgia infamous.
are experienced by about one in ten mill
lion OF the earth's citizens.
But are these necessary TO iifeg If
nothing startling happens to us must our
lives be terribly dull?
Never. There Is infinite romance to be
found all through llfe but II one never
Inexperienced anything else. existence
would be a sugar-plummy affair In which
ones soul would be always little Bilious
All through life with Its work and de-
veloping experience and simple living.
there are little high lights OF love and
Joy and pain and unkindness and growth
and suffering and ambition and effort.
And they dot the stream Of life with
islands on which to rest and rapids which
must be negotiated.
7 Nothing very big or startling happens
In most lives II is quite unnecessary
that one should have soul crises or mag
nificent moments As Browning says:
How good is mans life; the mere living!
How tit to employ
All the heart and the soul and the senses
Forever In Joy.