Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-23
Life Problems
Are Discussed

Lots of people will not admit that
they make New Years resolutions,
but every one does.
And the reason why? Because
In all of us is the instructive long
ing to wipe the slate off clean and
do things little better and a little
Inherently from the way we have
been doing them.
OF course, there are always the
cynical ones who sit in the seats of
the scornful and say: New Years
resolutions! What do they amount
to? They are as brittles as pie
crust. You only make them to break
them. And what is the use of lit
tering up the New Year with rub
bish of broken resolutions?"
Let the scornful rave. We win
and they lose; for whether we keep
our good resolutions or not, we have
in the mere process of making them
given our souls much-needed bath.
1 suppose every one has some
little 5uperstitions which are dear
to him, some little customs which
he unfailingly observes. 1, for one,
will confess that no matter what the
weather / always open the windows
wide at midnight on the thirty-first
of December to let in the New Year.
and ! also burn a candle to light its
way. .r-
Who would fail to welcome it,
that perfectly spick and span New
on its shining surface? II there
ever was a thing to welcome, and
rejoice over, it is the New Year.
Why shouldn't we believe that it's
going to be to us all that we want
or expect 1t to be? We may have
no grudge against the old year, but
we are tired of the monotony of it.
And since we expect the New Year
to bear us the gifts we wish the most
we hasten to offer oblations before
it. We say in effect:
"Oh, New Year, we are going to
be so good for the next twelve
months that you will simply have to
reward us by granting all our wishes
and giving US the desires of our
hearts!"
The. arrival of the New Year is a
great adventure; so why regard it
as a commonplace happening? An
adveture is considered by most peo-
pie to be an exciting, unusual event
pmes quite suddenly and un-
eApeCIeuly lHtO our lives.
But why shouldn't we find ad-
cdre in the usual? A sunset is
always an adventure, although 1t
occurs every day. The dawn is an
adventure. Why should we get up
today and wearily clothe ourselves
in the soiled garments of yesterdays
griefs and regrets and mistakes and
failures? Today is always another
day.
And 1t is never the event itself
which discourages us and makes us
miserable. 1t is the way we take it.
For instance, n girl told me of be-
| ing caught ont in a pouring rain the
evening. Neither she nor the
| friend who was with her had UNI
| breIlas. They were drenched to the
skin. There was not car in sight,
nor a taxicab within hail; and they
were far from home.
As they trudged along unsheltered
and grouching through the storm,
they began to imagine circumstanc-
es under which they could possibly
/ find this experience agreeable.
They pictured themselves as hav-
| ing endured a long sojourn in an ex-
| ceptionally arid desert where the
sun had baked them and the dust
| Idu CHOhCu lhChA anu eAO Shg haN
/ blinded them with its hot glare. Fol-
dayh and months they had sighed foI
rain. with never a cloud the size OF
mans hand on the horizon. And
| then they pictured what this driving
rain through which they were walk
ing would have meant to them, with
what ecstacy they would have well
coined 1t.
They kept up this game until they
reached home, laughing, joking
amused. Their experience was nc
longer a disagreeable occurrence
but a real adventure because over
the circumstance they had thrown
the fairy glamor of ake-believe.
The people who rush about try
| ing to find things that are going to
please and interest them never sue
ceed in discovering them. The blue
bird is always just spreading his
wings in flight as they arrive on the
scene. Consequently. no matter how
madly they pursue 1t. their lives are
spent in a monotonous and unend-
ing quest.
But the real adventures find ad-
venture everywhere. because for
them the commonplace is always
camoufiaged with the rose color OF
romance.
BURGLARS ENJOY SUNDAES