Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-07-19
Keeping Accounts
uith Yourself
BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX.

An old Arabic saying reads: -Four
things come not back: The spoken
word; the sped arrow; time passes;
the neglected opportunity.
The wisdom OF the ages lies in this
old proverb.
! How many OF US put its lesson
into practice on Our way through
life? -,
How many OF US keep books with
life and carry on accounts with and
for ourselves which make tor our
own growth and progress and which
saves us from too great and cruel in
debtedness marked down against us!
For all we get in life we pay. And
the price is too often extortionate.
We don't take the finality of things
seriously enough. And there is a
grim reality in many things.
We speak idly and without thought.
We forget what we have said be-
cause we gave it so little considera-
ton before expressing it and meant
so little by 1t when we spoke. But
the fact that we have spoken has its
weight. Someone listened. Someone
will remember.
Nothing we can say or do alter
ward can quite make up for the care
less word we spoke. Perhaps it hurt
someone we loved Perhaps it
harmed the reputation of someone to
whom we wished no evil. Perhaps it
put US on record as taking an atti-
tude in some matter which is not
basically our opinion at all But we
have spoken and the word will not
return.
The sped arrow reaches some mark
perhaps not the one at which we
aimed, but a mark, nevertheless.
Shoot into the air and you may cleave
the bark of tree, destroy twig
or even end the life OF human
being.
The arrow that snaps off from
bow or that comes from an action
has gone. Whether it goes wide of
its mark or straight to it, that it has
been sped is a fact-and fact which
we cannot undo.
And time! Most Of us treat time
as if eternity itself were ours. We
waste days and even weeks with a
prodigal carelessness we would fear
to show in our disposal Of money.
But time once spent never returns.
Think of the day when you arose,
looked out OF the window at low
ering sky and wondered how you
were going to get through another
rainy dayP How did you get rid Of
that day? Get rid of it," mind you;
dispose of wonderful minutes and
hours that might have meant growth
and progress; lavishly expend time
that should have been used to definite
purpose.
Did you NOPE around the house
complaining, or did you rush out in
search of diversion, or even fritter
away the time in telephone CONVEX
sations and nibbling at candy?
Every time l hear anyone talking
in blase accents Of killing an hour"
l wonder if they have any idea of
the opportunities for study and use
full service to the world and self
cultivation they are wastingl
Recently l overheard one society
girl say to another in lazy drawl:
"How do you find time to read" She
meant it, too. Her days are spent
in rushing about from one festivity
to another and identifying herself
for long hours of the day in prepara-
ton for each new excursion after
pleasure and admiration.
The idle kill time-they assassinate
most of the peace and happiness in
their neighborhoods and get exactly
nowhere as the result of their tragic
waste of life itself.
And if ever they awake to a reali-
cation of their own folly and long
to make up for it, life is memorable.
Nothing can make up for wasted
time. The hour that is gone never
will return.
That we cannot recall time which
is passed ought to make US value
time seriously and refrain from vast
ing it.
And however much OF new chance
life offers us, it will never again give
US back the same opportunity we
once neglected and wasted. What
that opportunity might have meant
we can never know. What we might
have accomplished by Selling a mo-
ment which came and was gone
again lies hidden from our knowl-
edge.
But there are things in life which
offer themselves to us and go, never
to return; and there are deeds which
we do which are sadly irretrievable.
1t is well for US to stop and question
before acting or failing TO act: Is
this final? Is it for all time? Is it
one OF the things which will never
return-a moment which is here now
and which shall always regret il
I 1oea3