The Washington herald., 1918-09-20
The Point of View.
by DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid woman
Writer.

/ your point of view?
/ There is no such thing as an ideal
/ condition Of life. There is no earthly
paradise. No human being is SO
| fortunately situated that he or she
| is immune TO the cares. sorrows, sick
ness and disappointments that are
the common heritage of all humanity
| Out of all of this ,muddle that we
call life, some people get happiness
and go laughing through it, while
others get unhappiness and go wall
ing and weeping. and beating upon
| their breasts, and crying out that all
! Is cinders, ashes and dust.
Yet fate has played no favorites.
! We, all have gotten about the same
deal The difference consists in the
way we have looked at our cards
Some have bcheld them through rose
colored glasses, and it has made them
| feel that the game was worth playing
| just for the sheer sport of II. Others
have looked at their hands through a
siCkly. green, bilious haze that has
made them fling down the cards and
| say. "Oh, what's the use!''
1t is not the thing itself. IT is our
own mental attitude towards it that
makes it either thrillingly exciting or
deadly bore. For an Illustration OF
| this you need go no further than the
ancient and honorable game of golf,
| which really isn't half as interesting.
and is far more laborious than hoeing
4 potatoes, yet men who could not be
/ induced to spend a single, solitary
/ Saturday half-holiday in wedding a
| potato row, or chasing the nimble
| potato bug as It leaps from leaf to
| leaf. will walk miles and miles
around a golf course pursuing a little
white ball. and enjoy every minute
| OF 1t because they think they are
amusing themselves instead of doing
some useful labor.
Yet, as a matter OF fact, work Is
| the most interesting thing in the
| world. 1t is the most fascinating
game that human ingenuity has ever
devised, and no people. in reality, are
/ so lucky as those who are driven by
their business or profession. You
never see n really hard-worked per-
son who is languid. flabby. discon-
tented, full of complaints about all
sorts OF trivial matters.
But we have been taught to take
the wrong point OF view of work
We have been taught that TO have
to earn our bread by the sweat of
our brow is curse. instead of its
being an appetizer that gives our
bread a flavor that no other condi-
ment can give II. So we go about
envying the rich who do not have
to toll. instead Of plying them be-
cause they are denied lifes choicest
pleasure.
And inasmuch as most OF us have
n NTnrlr NNrhnfhaV
isn't it a pity that we haven't in
telligence enough to realize that
whether our work is drudgery or
play, is simply in the way we look
at It?
And II Il Is unfortunate that men
so often fail to get the right per-
spectivc on their work, it is nothing
less than tragic that the great ma
jortty Of women do not get any hap
piness out of their life work be-
cause they look at it from the
wrong angle.
Every woman who makes her liv-
ing outside of the home, every
woman who has money that she earns
herself and can spend as she pleases.
and especially every woman who fol-
lows any sort of a profession that is
public, or semi-public, and who gets
her name now and then in the papers,
is an object of frank envy to every
domestic woman. Every professional
woman has hundreds Of wives and
mothers say to her, II wish l could
do something in the world like you
do. But 1 feel am so useless. /
am nothing but a wife and mother,
and the only things that I can do
are to raise babies and keep house.
What a wonderful thing It must be
to lead broad life as you don'
Think of a woman who is holding
together a home with her own hands.
who has created immortal souls, and
who is shaping the destinies of chill
dren who may make history, thinking
herself of less Importance than some
other woman who writes, or sings, or
acts, or buys shirt waists for a de-
partment store!
These domestic women see their
housekeeping as only a treadmiu in
which, they go round and round the
same monotonous grind of cooking,
cleaning up and sewing and mending
They see their husbands as task
masters who seldom vouchsafe them
even a word of praise. They even
visualize their children as the collie
that must be walked, dirty little
faces that must be continually wash
ed, clutching hands pulling at
, mothers skirt, walling voices always
calling for m-o-t-h-e-r.
And 1t Is all nerve wearing. tire
some, monotOnous, and dreary. and
they have times of wondering why
any woman is ever fool enough to
marry and have children.
If only they could see the domestic
woman as she really is, how their
hearts would leap with gladness and
their lips sing with Joy! II you could
make the housekeeper see that she is
real conserver of the health and
wealth of the nation, she wouId NOT
despise her cook stove. and her market
basket. If you could make the wife
see that making a man happy and
comfortable is work of diplomacy
worthy of the powers OF any minis
ter, plenipotentiary, or ambassador
extraordinary. she would find interest
and excitement in keeping his fur
rubbed the right way.
If you could make a mother real
ize that what her children are is
what she makes them, that she sends
them forth TO success or failure, TO
bless or curse the world, she
woulo KNOW tnat she is the one JIM
portant woman in the world, and
that the greatest achievement of the
childless woman pales into insignifi-
cance before her august career.
1t is the point of view that makes
us happy or miserable. Let's all trr
to get new spectacles with rose-eol-
ored glasses in them.
Dorothy Dix's articles appear reS-
uiarly in this paper every Monday.
Wednesday and Friday.
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