Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-12-10
The Folly of
Impotence
BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX.


"Pstiencei What wound did you ever
heal but by degrees?'' is a wise summing
up Of situation which Shakespeare
viewed with the clear eye OF sanity.
Patience is probably the most comfort
able of all the virtues-and one Of the
least prevalent. Again and again you
hear people exclaiming. Il can stand any
thing but uncertainty" And one Of the
things we are most frequently called on
to endure is just fundamentally.
II life were a cut and dried matter in
which one could be sure Of measured out
ingredients-so much sorrow: so much
10y; so much pain, so much comfort; so
much darkness and so much light--one
would not be called upon to exert any
particular strength Of character. But one
would be bored-bored to extinction!
Uncertainty lends a tremendous zest to
living. The Joy Of striving impels a
strong character to effort-the fear Of
the futility of striving keeps a weakling
from action.
Waiting for things will get on your
nerves II you passiveiy wait But IL while
waiting. you make every effort to bend
circumstances to your will-if you fill
your time with active effort, all tending
toward g certain definite goal, waiting
will not be a nervous strain filled with
jerky wonderings, timorous forebodings
and painful imagining as to how things
are coming out
Patience IL a very difficult thing to at
tain. But when once you have actually
learned the secret of self-control. and
self-control is probably the most useful
characteristic you ever can acquire.
Whether we like It or not, most of us
have to learn to wait. In nature ell
things evolve very slowly. Growth comes
through very slow and scarcely per-
ceptible evolution in the life of the world
In the life of the individual growth is
not a thing that can be measured by the
eye.
Suppose your right arm becomes in
capacitated for work. You face the alb
vEolute necessity of using the left one
but that does not mean that the desire
to use It gives you at once the ability TO
do so. Slowly, with infinite effort, with
the disbursement of numberless fail
ures, you train the unaccustomed mus
cles to answer the messages from the
lobe Of your brain, which is not used to
sending messages.
lou are etIueT patient enough 10 30 on
trying to perfect your new activity or
you do not succeed. OF course you must
succeed or you become a cripple with a
useless right arm and an unframed left
one. Recognizing patience as an actual
necessity rather than merely an admir-
able, virtue. you cultivate it. 1t is a case
of needs must. q
There is hardly situation in life where
the practice of patience does not stand
as q requirement ranging through a
gamut from advisability tos necessity.
once make up your mind that everything
in the world will be easier for you IT, you
go at II with unflurried calm and control
of nerves, and you will find patience
making your whole existence serenely- en-
durable and the controlled thing taken
out of the realms OF within, chance and
impulse.
No, poet has failed to extol the beauty
of patience; no philosopher has neglected
to emphasize the necessity of II. No
human being so blind as not to see how
patience will lessen the jar and friction
OF life.
Patient or not. we have to wait for all
we want in life. And with the control of
T. tience walting-life itself-were easier
Nd sweeter. Then why not learn patience
as earnestly as you go about mastering
all knowledge you know to be necessary
to your personal success?