The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-02-24

and a country church by their remOv
al, just because they got to thinking
! that other people in towns and cite:
were getting all the good of life.
Such people rarely find in town the
happiness they were seeking. You
see the big house they built shut up
"thes folks" rather forlornly sitting
around, scarcely knowing how to mix
with their neighbors and at heart
wondering why they came Often
they think the town folks stuck up
and selfish because they do not at
once include them in all their inter
ests.
Men, as a rule, take these things
as they come, but women, fret about
them and suffer over them, wonder
ing in pain and sorrow why Mrs.
SO-and-So didn't invite them, and why
the rich brother-in-law doesn't make
his son come and take the children
to ride in his new car.
If we were more in the inside" of
other peoples lives we should find
them pathetically like our own, full OF
| schemes and worries, Of wondering
| why certain people don't treat them
| better.
This is all terribly cheap, but there
| is q lot of just such ways Of thinking
in the world. If we could learn that
| there is no actual tribunal OF great
ness in the world; that even crowned
| heads are subject TO Sights and snub.
! bing by other crowned heads; that
members Of social coteries dare not
at risk Of their own skins, try 10 III
troducc foreign element; that the
new friend you have met, and who has
! perhaps been attracted to you, dares
not introduce you to her friends.
But | think the person who cares
| least-that is, who worries least
about what his neighbOrS think of him
is the one who is living nearest right.
The woman who is busy and inter
ested in her own affairs has little
time to speculate on the doings or
thinkings of her neighbors. 1t is a
sad case for q woman when she gets
crazy about her neighbOrS, and goes
to planning how to share their joys
to the neglect Of her own home duties.
Many an American home is suffering
today from such a mania.
The doings of "the crowd" the So
cial affairs in sight, the possibility of
call over the telephone to play in
some game or join in a picnic or an
imprOmptu dance or an automobile
party, occupy more time in the minds
of many young women than such sub
iects as what the children are think
ing about and doing, OF even what
they are eating or how their wearing
apparel corresponds in price with the
family pocketbook.
Many a household lives the sad
story of Indifferent housekeeping,
poor cooking, extravaganza and the
neglect of children, because OF the
mothers inveterate habit of thinking
about other people. She desires to
make show before them, to enter
tain and be entertained by them, to
feel the intoXication of their admira-
ton, the triumph Of their envy, the
JOY of their notice and patronizing. Is
it not really very contemplate?
We have careful thoughts for the
stranger
And smiles for the sometimes guest;
But oft for our own the bitter tone,
Though we love our own the best.
Is not this a sad admission? But
we must cease making it. We must
stop thinking about "other people, >
except in a general way of kindness
and we'll wishing, and center our
thoughts more upon those who are
near and dear to us.
AS age comes on we will realize
more and more how few of the people
we used to regard with awe were
worth our respect for them. We see
in the men whose judgments we fear
ed just pottering old village aristo-
Gratis who really didn't know beans
about anything, and in the women
cantankerous old despots with little
understanding of life and few genuine
sympathies.
And in the gay young crowd of So
ciety folks who had such power to
wound or to make us glad-but where
are they? Suddenly, just as we felt
in full fellowship with them, they are
gone! Dead, moved away, changed,
| forgotten!
And here we stand with our ways
of thinking about other people
strangely reversed; softened, indeed
into great affection and forgiveness
full of humorous Renaissance, and
tinged with regret for the time we
wasted worrying about them.
The lesson OF 1t all is this: Do not
| spend much time thinking about your
| neighbors. If they are sick minister
to them if you can; if they are pleas
ant enjoy them casually, and be kind
! to them, even as you would have
others be kind to you. There are
plenty of great and beautiful subjects
to think about, to talk about with the
family, to study about and learn
about. Save your mentality for such
| subjects.