The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1917-07-25
Dorothy Dix Says
ON LIFE.
by Dorothy Dix


sand sacrifices and adjustment. TO each
other, and that they are inevitably de
prived Of much of the liberty that a sin
gle person enjoys.
Thefe is no husband who does not
have his times and seasons of Crouch
ing. There is no wife who upon occa'
sion does not act more like a silly and
hysterioal hen than pin-feathered
angel. There is no married couple that
does not find that marriage is more or
less of a failure. and there is no mar
ried couple that could not make mar
riage more or less OF a success,
They get out Of it what they put into
Il, The man who consciously deter
mines to build up a happy and success
full home Of which he makes himself
the inspiring head instead Of the ty-
rannical despot who is interested in
all the little details Of furnishing and
adjoining his living place; who loves
his wife and makes Of her his most
cherished chum and companion, finds
that domesticity is a gilt edged invest
ment.
So does the woman who determines
to be a real helpmate 10 her husband
who sees in cooking and washing and
ironing not a sordid slavery to little
things but a high calling to the noblest
career that any woman can espouse,
and who counts every sacrifice sweet
that she makes for the sake Of the man
,,tIo a. I.av., ,ha, hAt nu,, gna,(nVt
and luxury to her.
No outside conditions can make
matrimony n happy estate. Money, be
yond enough to provide for the bare
necessities OF existence, has nothing to
do with il. There are Quarrcls and
chickering's in palaces, and peace and
contentment in novels. Whether mar
riage is an earthly purgatory or para
disc depends absolutely upon what a
man and woman put into it. That they
get out OF it.
And the same thing may be said
about parenthood. No one can deny
that children are a great care, a great
expense, and a great responsibility, and
that they often are ungratctul and un-
appreciativc OF the sacrifices their
fathers and mothers have made for
them.
But il pays to raise children, or it
doesn't pay, according to the way you
do it. II a man never shows his chill
dren any affection, il he is hard and
stern with them so that they tremble
at his step and never think of him in
any other way than as a jailer they
mean to escape from as soon as they
are old enough or, if he is too much
absorbed in business to even get &C
quaintcd with them, then p%aren,hood is
a losing investment for him,
He gets nothing out of it but the
sacrifices he has had to make and the
wotk he has to do to support his chill
dren, because that is all that he has
ever put into fatherhood. But II he
has been a loving and sffectionste
father, who has chummed with his
children and whom they have adored,
then he has collected the dividends OF
a millionaire on parenthood every time
a little arm has slid around his neck,
and he will go on collecting it to the
end of his days in the knowledge. that
he has sons and daughters who con
slider IT their greatest privilege TO min
ister to him.
Finally, we get out OF our work Just
what we put into it, ! asked a most
successful man once what occupation
he would advise a young man to 60
into. The great man replied 81, does
not matter wha, he does. The only
thing that counts is how he does it.
A man can make a fortune in anything
il he does it well enough"
Herein lies the secret Of all success.
No man or woman ever achieved fame
or fortune in any line who did not put
his or her whole soul and mind and
body into the thing that he or she un-
dertook to do. 1t is the enthusiasts
who do things and who have such JOY
and interest in the thing they arc do
ing that they get doubly paid for every
effort. II is our own pleasure in do
ing the thing we like to do that turn,
the work into play and makes play
profitable,
This is a truth that we cannot take
too much TO heart-that all enjoyment
comes from within. II is our own at
tltude toward the thing we arc doing
that makes it pleasure or pain, and
brings happiness or misery, success or
failure, There are no i%avorite sons.
really, in lie, and what we get out OF
the game is Just what we put into it,
In the last analysis it is all up to us.