Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-04-26
Mental
Housekeeping
By BEATRICE FAIRFAX.

Now that spring is here most OF
us are about ready TO take down the
lace curtains and pack away our furs
in moth balls. All the things which
clutter up house in the winter are
going to be brushed and laid away
SO that summers heat will find our
places as open and airy as possible.
| wish we could all settle down to
clearing our minds OF the Junk"
which has accumulated there and that
we might leave them as neatly swept
end garnished and open to air and
sunshine as our houses are soon TO
be!
The average mind isSsomething
like a badly regulated novelty shop
which has grown down at the heels
through dust and dirt and years Of
Encouragement. 1t is full Of things
which its owner doesn't want and
wouldn't know how to get if he did.
If | could attend to the spring
housekeeping OF the average mind,
the very first things ] should take
down would be the thick and dusty
lace curtains of tradition. Tradition
is all very we'll if you take small
piece OF it and look at it with an
amused knowledge that it is fairy
tale woven around yesterday.
But if you let it get between you
and the fact that the world is ad-
vancing and progressing and step
ping up on yesterday to reach to-
day, it simply shuts off from your
own vision all the sunshine and fresh
air of new thought
After | had taken down the blind
ing curtains of tradition | should
at once put away in camphor all
the draperies Of sorrow. Sorrow
has been called "the mere rust Of
the SOUL" but think that it is far
more like the sitting plush drapery
and portieres with which people make
their houses musty and arless, and
dusty and dead. Activity and thought
will cleanse and brighten your mental
processes as soon as you get your
mind out Of the heavy swathings OF
sorrow.
The next thing in my houseclean-
ing would be to punch up all the
pillows and cushioned upholsteries
OF habit and lay them away for the
summer. Then | should enter the
closets i'll which hung my garments
OF memory and regret. should
shake them out thoroughly and put
them away,
Now with tradition and sorrow
a.J h,L,t a,1 ,,,a,,ar,oe md ranrnte
neatly laid away in camphor Of
il | could get the courage TO do it
sold to the old clothes mani
should consider it about time to clean
the house have so thoroughly
cleared.
First, up would go the windows
and in would come stream OF the
sunshine and fresh air of honesty
and sincerity. Then for the soap
and water and scrubbing brushes of
open-mindedpess and plain truth ap-
piled with rough courage-and plenty
OF it. By that time think the mind
/ was housekeeping would be
pretty habitable place!
After all, when you clear out the
stupid, outworn notions which you
have mechanically been accepting
without reasoning about them or exs
aiming them, and when you open
your mind to honest facts and big
realities and refuse to squirm away
from contemplation of yourself, as
you are, you have put your House
of Thoughts in very good order. But
you have to keep it open. The min
ute you shut it against facts and take
the stupid, old If it's good enough
for my grandmother its good enough
down the binding curtains of ira
for me" attitude, you are pulling
down the binding curtains Of tradi-
ton. s.
An open mind cannot help receiv-
ing healthy and vivid impressions,
And it reacts to them sanely and
well. How is anyone to get anywhere
if he refuses to see life as it is and to
examine things as they are?