The Washington herald., 1917-04-03
Singing Our Songs

This morning I came across these lines:
Il am not fighting my fight,
l am singing my song
They express all the difference between
those who have soured on life, who are
always complaining OF their lot. and look
upon their work as a hateful drudgery.
and those who. whatever happens. sing
their song. look upon life with a cheer
full eye and find joy IN their job.
The optimist makes life what We might
call poetry; the pessimist, with the same
material. makes it dry. dreary prose.
What We will get out OF life depends
upon how we look at it. Our mental at
titude determines whether we shall be
happy or miserable.
The man who faces life the right way.
who is cheerful, hopeful, always expect
Ing the best to come to him. because he
believes he is lucky, will increase his
ability tremendously. His mental atti-
tude will call out resources which the
calamity bowler. the pessimist loses, be-
cause his mental attitude closes h, ma
ture instead of opening it up. He mega
tives his mind. and hence greatly lessons
his productive power.
II we would only cultivate the cheerful,
optimistic spirit We could increase our
efficiency a hundred per cent lengthen
dsagreeable things of life.
Half of our troubles and trials come
from our gloomy outlook our taking life
too seriously, anticipating evil instead Of
good. Nine-tenths of the people we meet
look as though they might be coming
from a funeral instead OF being on their
way to lifes great festival OF toy and
2ladness.
1t is positively wicked especially for
people who should know better, to 60
among their fellows giving the impress
sion that life is so awfuly serious that
people can get little or no enjoyment
out of it.
The habit of anticipating evil. of always
fearing tn It some unfortunate thing is
going to happen. destroys ones peace of
mind and happiness and hence mars ones
health and efficiency.
Recently heard a woman say that she
had noticed every little while somebody
was drowned at a picnic. or seriously in
jured in falling from a swing or a tree,
and so she never let her children go to
any of these outings. She was afraid
something would happen to them.
How many times a dav do you use
the expression. I'm afraid" 4 great
many of us use it habitually without real
izing the injurious mental effect the
words have. l tried to keep count one
day OF the number of times the express
sion was used by friend of mine. or
course l vas not with him all day, but
mere are some OF the instances which l
tecoroed. In the morning when l met
him he sad. DO you know, I'm afraid
that we are going to have a very cold
winter. and I'm afraid that its going to
have very bad effect upon my busi-
ness! A little later he remarked: I'm
afraid we're going to have serious trouble
with Mexico" Switching on to family
affairs he said, I'm afraid my boy. who
is away at school, is going to the bad"
lunched with him the same day, and
the nrst thing he said when We sat down
was II m afraid to eat these things I've
got dyspepsia. In fact l have grown
so that I'm afraid to eat anything. 1t
! distresses me So" And so he went on
fearing something all through the day
He must have said. I'm afraid" at least
twenty-five times that day.
There is scarcely a human being who
uoesht use this or some other pessimis-
tic expression two or three, perhaps
many more. times a day. And few of
US realize that every time We say I'm
afrald We weaken our faith in our
ability to stand up against the thing we
rear. Every time we say We are afraid
Of poverty, afraid of disease. afraid of
conditions. afraid Of this or afraid o.
that. We are undermining our confidence
In ourselves. undermining our disease
| resisting power. We are introducing a
| poison into our minds that will react on
| our health and efficiency.
Let us quit doing the things whicn
| we known injure us. Let US have done
with fear. with pessimism. with the
| pessimist who seems to think that the
pathway of human life always leads to
the jungle! Let US look at life from
the viewpoint of the optimist, who be-
| lieves that 1t leads to the Paradise OF
| the Promised Land. Let us say,
| Il am not fighting my fight,
| l am not singing my song"
An old black sock, or stocking, is the