Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-12-21
BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX.

All through life most of us accept sub
stitutes for the things we really want.
We Justify ourselves to ourselves by
saying that we can't have what we
want. and SO we might as well take the
next best thing. We fill up our minds
and hearts with idle vanities and feed our
souls on empty shells-snd excuse our
selves by saying we do this in order to
attain contentment What we really do
attain is Uttered up and useless lives
from which opportunity is shut because
there is no room for her-and from
which growth is excluded because. we
force an unnatural development.
There are some of lifes gifts for which
there is no possible substitute. For love
there can be none. Nor for honest work.
Truth and honor. and high ideals, and
friendship, and appreciation Of beauty,
and religion, and ambition. and a hui
morous conception Of ones place i'm the
universe. coupled with a sane sense of
responsibility, must be in every life that
is to be fine. and big. and constructive.
and happy. Nothing else will take their
place. There is nothing Just as good"
as sympathy and MISUNDERSTANDING
else will equip you for love or friendship
nothing else will make you so lovable
or so worth living with
No one can cheat you but you. your
self You never have to accept substi-
tutes for the things you really want you
never have to take the next best thing
laStead Of your own high desire Then
my do you do It? Because you are too
Impatient to wait for the contamination
Of your desires. because you are too
much doubter to believe life will give
~ o. 80 asw ,nsI.a aFnrr
long for; because you are too ready and
willing to take the opinion of any
one as TO what is worthy ambition
instead of holding to your own concep-
ton Of Il; finally. because you are too
lazy TO work for the fulfilment of your
ambitions or too eaGy-going and weak
willed to formulate clear ambitions-for
any Of these four reasons, you take the
first thing that chances TO be offered in
stead OF striving and struggling for what
you really want, and what your nature
needs for it's fuIfilment.
Consider the case Of poor, abused love.
How many women marry the man they
love-or any one OF the dozen or so men
somewhere In the world who might come
up to their ideal? Eleanor adores Dick.
Dick marries Lucille. Promptly then
Eleanor rushes into an engagement with
Robert and marries him partly because
she is afraid OF an empty life. partly to
prove TO the people who might suspect
her of an unreciprocated affection for
Dick that they are wrong. partly to show
Dick that she is attractive to some man
and partly because she Graves love and
imagines that she is getting something
Just as good" or the next best thing to
what she really wanted
What happens? Eleanor has no love
TO give Robert She cheats him: she
cheats herself; she denies herself and
rhe man whose greatest mistake and
crime is nothing worse than loving where
he cannot inspire love. a chance at real
happiness. II Eleanor had waited. a love
greater than the fancied OF real one she
felt for Dick might have come into her
life. She might have found contentment
in work. She would have left open for
herself a chance at happiness. But no!
Blindly and quickly she must seize upon
the next best thing to what she really
wanted. And with the image OF one man
in her heart she cannot make herself
happy with or give happiness TO another
For love there Is no substitute love.
Take the case of ambition Suppose
YOU long to be a great singer. Suppose
you have the equipment in ability and
temperament and even opportunity-pro7
vided you will work and earn and deserve
it. But the road is long and hard and
means deprivations and difficulties &c
be overcome The goal is far away. Right
at hand lies a certain competence in a
chance TO sell insurance You take the
easy path OF craftsmanship. although In
your heart there is one great vision thai
blots out everything but the one thing
fear of work.
You have assurance that you could
hardly fail as a singer-provided YOU
would work. But you are lazy. You as
sure yourself that an artistic career Ii
uncertain at best and you become q
mediocre salesman Cwho will never have
TO starve. it is true) but, who. with hear
and interest conferred elsewhere, will b
most unlikely to climb TO any position o.
responsibility in your company. And al
your life you sneak away to hear grea
singers and rouse yourself with a star
from dreams Of what might have been !
YOU had been willing TO wait and work
And now for work-the saving grace o
humanity. Is there anything "just al
good" as that? Il 'oinch" or snap
or a dishonest get-rich-quick scheme o
8 life OF idle luxury gained through &C
cident Of birth or in some mercenar!
way to be compared with IL? The Onl.
next best thing TO work is-more work
There Is nothing just as good" as
chance TO make place for yourself II
the world or TO prove your ability an
strength and fine mentality.
Suppose you drift into some oeoupa