The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1915-12-09
OUR RAW MATERIALS.

ter artist in life's workshop, but merely
humble workman who knows how to handle
his raw materials. 1t is in our ability to
recongnize and distinguish between the
true quality Of the latter that our oppor-
tunities for happiness lie. The most at
tractive and most easily obtainable are not
always the ones that make for true con-
tentment and often it happens that the
materials which at first we are likely to pass
by as of no use whatever possess the prop.
critics most necessary for our individual!
satisfaction and welfare. That which gives
the greatest measure of happiness to one
person does not by any means offer the
same opportunties to others, individual
compartments and natures demanding cor
respondingly varying Inducements, al
though as rule, it is in the smaller hap
penings of life that the average person finds
his highest happiness. The simply every
day occurrences often mean nothing to US
while we are in their full enjoyment, and
accept them as a matter Of course and
without in the least approaching their true
value. 1t is only when any Of them are
taken away from US or the opportunity for
enjoying them is denied US, that we begin
to realize what they really meant and how
hard they are to replace. They are the
raw materials from which we are expected
to mould our happiness, yet we do not al
ways look upon them in this way nor do We
know how to work them into shape even
when we recognize their merits. 1t is so
much easier to let the ordinary course of life
take care Of ITSELF as it were, than to place
ourselves to the Inconvenience and eXertiOn
of trying to understand the true conditions
of our lives and to govern ourselves &C
cordingly. Lies contradictions occasion
large part Of our sufferings; we see some
good fortune that has happened to others
and because the same JOY does not come
to US we grow disconnected without in
the least approaching the fact that very
probably We would not be benefited in like
manner. The good fortune, perhaps, was
really not question SO much of chance as
it was ola happy sequence OF related events
which had their beginnings in early days.
1t may have been that the care which such
persons took to work into permanent form
the raw materials at their early disposal
resulted in the seeming good fortune Of
later years, while we, who were careless of
the way we discharged our tasks, uncon-
sciously sacrificed our future to the ease of
the present and did not lay up for ourselves
the rewards that proceed naturally from
good beginnings.
He who learns, whatever the conditions
of his life, to appreciate and enjoy to the
utmost the small everyday concerns of life
and to mould their raw materials in such a
manner that they shall take permanent
form later on lays by reserve Of happi-
ness for the future. On the other hand, he
who squanders his opportunities by failing
to recognize them in the commonplace
affairs OF life is doomed to spiritually
beggared old age. The commonplace
affairs of life," is phrase large in signif
canoe, because what we ordinarily regard
as commonplace are as far removed from
being so as the sun is from the earth. The
expression is not an accurate one because
there are no affairs in life which relate tc
the worthy formation of our character
which can be SO termed. They may seem
commonplace for the reason that we have
grown accustomed to them and accordingly
they have lost their appeal for US but
nothing that enters into our individual de.
velupment, even should it be of everyday
occurrence, can ever really be classed az
commonplace, 1t is in fact the man Of
simple habits and the most rational inter.
ests who gets the best out of life and who
is constantly finding something of interes
and Of use to him. He who runs the scale
of experience up and down finds little Of
nothing that is new and interesting. He il
satiated and even the interests and expert
ences which might be called tout of thu
ordinary" do not appeal to him, while th'
saner and simpler interests of his earl,
youth are either lost to him forever or els'
have to be cultivated again. The simple
and undoubtedly more wholesome of GU
blessings are not always so regarded AM
while occasionally man is far seeing ant
intelligent enough to recognize them a
such the larger proportion of mankind ex
pect their blessings to take more interesting
form. The possession of our five senses
for example, is more often counted ne
cessity than blessing, yet if we shoul'
forever lose one or the other of them thor
is no doubt of our willingness then to &C
knowledge its true worth. We do not re
gard our natural endowments in any othe
light than actual needs until we are dene
some of them. In many cases they ar
the raw materials out of which we are give
opportunity after opportunity to lay up GU
stores of happiness, but we are blind enoug
to pass even these by and to look to othe
sources for the happiness which we are nc
willing to believe they can give. Tt is i
our common possessions that we may fin
the most opportunity for happiness an
naturally it depends upon our perceptibilit
as we'll as upon our judgment how we'll W
work up the materials at our command.
Louisville Courier-Journal: If German
could win the world would not be fit to liv
in. 1t is just as easy to forsee that tn
triumph of Germany would remand creatio
into an armed camp, the century before u