Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1917-12-15
The Joy of Living
ACQUIRING, APPRECIATING AND
CONTRIBUTING
By J. J. Niemann

very ability is often held up to scorn.
Now stop and think a moment. Grant
that the mere possession of this
worlds goods is in itself a low ideal
of success. Still, you must admit
that it is the basis for almost all
kind of happiness. To have all of the
necessaries, some of the comforts, and
few of the luxuries of life, to pos
sess all of these because of your own
earning power, is perfectly laudable
ambition for every man and woman.
Acquiring, winning, getting, having,
possessing, with \ the self-confdence
and contentment that comes in their
train, are the first elements of the
joy of living. Moreover, possessing
is the basis for the other kind of
happiness. Society seldom gives it's
full confidence to any man who has
not shown an ability to establish
himself as property holder, using
the term not in its liberal, but in its
fgurative, sense. But mere having
is limited joy in life. "To solely
seek and find and feast" is in indeed
"poor vaunt of life" Well-fed and
well-clothed and well-housed, together
with all the other marks of "well-
healed" pleasure production. A sleek
cat lying before the fire in gorged
contentment, purring in the mere pos
session of a comfortable place in
which to lie, is all right for a cat; but
such an existence has it's drawbacks
for a human being. In fact, posses
sion means far more to some men
than to others. The having in ones
100000 residence a $4,000 library
does not necessarily indicate real
riches in literature; certainly not if
the owners power of appreciating
literature is limited to dime novels.
On the contrary, if a mans whole
library consists of a single tattered
copy of Mecbeth or Hamlet he may
be rich in the power of enjoyment of
that one worn volume. No, it isn't
success or happiness to have a horse
power purchasing ability and a
guinea-pig capacity of enjoyment.
Merely to have the privilege of riding
in luxurious limousine all day and
all week and all month, and Do
Nothing More, usually indicates that
the possessor is of the calibre who
sighs, ooh, dear, I find the time goes
so slow, 1 don't know how to occupy
myself"
For such empty, ignorant, narrow
souls, have pity! Their life is made
up of one old thing after another.
Remember that it isn't real happiness
to have large vocabulary and a glib
tongue if the only subject of conver-
sation upon which you can use these
powers are your neighbor's bonnets
or the latest scandal. Riches, then,
in the JOY of living are partly in the
inward capacity to appreciate the
the better things of life. Acquiring!
Approaching! Contributing! and the
greatest of these is Contributing.
To "Feed on JOY" to go the world
over in the search of that which can
satiate even the most highly devel-
Oped powers of appreciation, that,
too, is limited scope of living. One
must have something to give, some
service to render, some producing
power. Consider, for example, a
skillful surgeon. What is his joy of
living? Money and the possessions
it brings? Yes, society pays we'll
for surgeons skill. Enjoyment?
Yes, for the education that has pro-
duced that mans skill must have
brought with it the powers of ap-
preciating the good things of life.
But Contributing! All, here, here
lies real joy. Think of the satisfac-
tion of "going into" the twisted
spine or little BABE, and with the
skill of master relieving the pain,
shame and suffering of a lifetime.
Or he has taken the blood clot from
the brain of a powerful statesmen,
and thus saved for the nation the SER
vices of an indispensable leader. Joy
must come to the surgeon in proper
tion to the amount and complexity
of suffering he is able to prevent or
remove. You cannot think of man
of that kind estimating success mere
ly in dollars and cents.
Are you anxious to have the real
joy of living? Then, in your youth,
your growing time, get ready. First,
to wrest from this world an adequate
return for good workmanship; second,