Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1925-04-11
Meanderings OF A Mildly
Militant Mind
Mother Goose Wisdom

riness and general well-being. To
burden ourselves-and others-with
it, is grave mistake.
No matter how many tines we
have been told that worry is a spirit
ual infirmity, that it's no use cross
ing bridges until we reach them, few
OF us ever learn to shed the nerve
wearing habit of repeatedly turning
over IN our minds and thoughts that
tense our emotional natures and get
US nowhere.
We stew and fret, fuss and fume,
sob and sigh, live again unpleasant
past happenings or picture in imagi-
ration possible future ones.
| Whatever touches us on the raw,
we rub in. We make emotional twists
and turns to the tune of narrowing
mental strains. We work ourselves
into a state of mind that reacts on our
whole being, then go listlessly about
our work, no pleasure to ourselves and
precious little to anybody else Our
energy is depleted. Worry worse than
wastes it.
Thought and feeling are mighty
forces, and we can use them to our
good and the good of others, or to our
detriment and the detriment of 9TH
ers.
When we fail to be at our best
and we can't be when we're worried
there is no way of measuring the re-
suit of our failure. For lives lie close
together; our interests are interlock-
ed; and the ill that befalls one affects
many.
Worry is an illness, really. And it
is catching. 1t spreads like the
measles and the mumps.
The tone of the whole family is
often changed for day-or for life
by the worrying of a mother in the
home. The children go to school and
the father to business enveloped in
cloud. They are stung by the nettle
of discomfort; there's weight on
their consciousness; their work isn't
up to par, for their joy in it is gone.
The worry microbe is carried into
the schoolroom and the office, and in
both places it is communicated to
others. 1t carries on and on, ending
no one knows where. All because one
unfortunate woman has formed the
worry habit.
Yes, habit. That's alls it is.
Thought habits are established the
same as any others, and we were con-
fronted by even a partial list of the
wrong thought processes Of which we
are guilty
Yet, how many seem to pride them
selves on it! ~ can't help worry
ing" they say. "It isn't in me to let
things slide as some folk do. Why,
look at So-and-So, nothing ever both
ers them. My land, if I were in their
shoes, I'd be worried to DEATH" The
implication being of course, that such
persons are lacking in refined sensi-
bilit;es and quite incapable of feeling
as poignantly as the speaker
Glory in their weakness, that's what
worriers do, nine out of ten of them.
They seem never to learn the folly
of fretting over comparative trif1es,
or mulling over things which can't be
helped.
Problems are given US for solution.
Worry does not solve them. Worry is
thought running round in a circle. 1t
isn't clear, concentrated mental eff
fort, it is mental shiftlessness. In
diligence in it incapacitates us for
meeting the issues of life.
Vital questions and real troubles
come to us all, and after awhile we
learn the need of conserving our
strength to meet the inevitable.
Time and experience are our natur-
al teachers, but now and then their
aids are found in unexpected places.
I don't remember when it was that
Mother Goose came to their assist
ance in teaching me, but, not less
than a thousand times, and probably
more, l have profited by the wisdom
OF her words. They are we'll worth
remembering, and their advice worth
following.
F, So for the benefit of those who
may welcome helpful suggestion, I
pass them on:
"For ev'ry evil under the sun
There is remedy or there is none:
II there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it,"
EDNA BENTLEY HANCOCK.