Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1921-04-09
DRlFTWOOD


Some time ago ! strolled down the
beach along the shores Of Lake Mich
igan. The sand was white and beau
tiful, washed so clean by the action
of the waves that | could sit upon
it and run it through my tigers with
out soiling either my clothing or my
hands. Many beautiful pebbles were
scattered about, each shining and
polished. And as | looked away
down the shore, / saw great guam
titles of drift wood piled in all sorts
of positions along the beach. Some
lay half buried in white sand, some
was partially decayed, as though it
had been there long time, some
was still wet and lay so near the
water that the highest waves
spashed over it continually.
And as | sat there upon the sand
in the warm sunshine and thought of
the fuel famine which the country
passed through last year, / tried to
estimate just how many people
might have been warmed by that
drift wood which / knew was scat
tered all up and down the shores not
only of Lake Michigan but Of all the
rest of the lakes.
Where did all this drift wood come
from? What would become of ii?
What had been its former history?
The last question l could only spec
ulate about, the other two were
easier. All those timbers, those
boards, those tree trunks, those bits
of smaller debris had been carried
to their final resting place by the
action of the water. There they
would lie until time and the elements
ton unless perchance some band Of
brought about their final dissolu
picnckers gathered some Of it. to-
gether and made a bonfire to enable
them to have a vicente roast or
corn roast or a marsh-mallow frolic.
II was a short story easy to tell, this
middle and last chapter in the his
tory Of the driftwood Yet original
ly that drift wood was designed to
serve a useful purpose in the world,
to be made into ships or houses, or
furniture, or fuel, or whatnot. But
somehow or other it had missed its
opportunity and had met with this
fate.
A great waste? Yes But after
all it was only wood and the waste
could not be compared with the
waste of human drift wood all
around US We grant that it is
easier to be carried by someone else
than it is to stand upon ones own
feet and make definite progress to-
ward some desired point. But it is
also fact that the person who al
lows someone else to carry him,
must inevitably meet the fate Of the
drift wood on the shore so far as
ever serving any useful purpose in
the world is concerned. And it also
means that someone elsc-must carry
a double or treble burden and be
thereby hindered from reaching the
goal he has set for himself because
of the burden which has been thrust
upon him.
The old idea that honest work is
dishoncrable, that woman's chief
business is 20 dress up at someone
else's expense and look pretty, that
the world owes one a living, that it
is more lady like to be dependent
than to be Independent, is fortunate
ly fast disappearing. Yet in spite of
this we still have plenty of human
driftwood in the world which has be-
come driftwood through lack of in
itiative, ignorance, selfish love of
ease, Incidence or some other similar
cause. There is a great amount of
useful work crying to be done No
one can afford to allow himself or
herself to become mere driftwood,
cluttering up the shores of life with
no future to look forward to except
to lie inert upon the sands and wait
for time and the elements to do their
work.