Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-05-06
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

IF you feel irritated by the absurd
| remarks of two people whose CONVEX
sation you happen to hear, you should
(, imagine that you are listening to q
dialogue of two fools in comedy"
So says Schopenhauer. To many
especially the sensitive, this thought
will come as a welcome safety valve
which will take the sting out OF
many a. conversation and throw the
light OF common sense over what
might otherwise prove dark and brood
ing (which is doing quite well for a
valve, we admiO.
In this life most of us are exposed
| as one might say, to good and evil
thoughts, not only to those which
originate in our own minds, but
especially to those which are the hasty
and ill-advised products of the brains
Of others.
Friends and acquaintance of the
various degrees have opinions about
us and concerning what we do and say
that do not always harmonic with our
own inner ideas of our own thoughts
and ideas.
This is not as complicated as II
may seem, for we all think, or go
through some sort of mental process
which is commonly honored by that
name, and these thoughts are not
only original, in so far as we car
make them, but also are ideas about
ideas.
Most of us fondly believe we are
right, for instance. Perhaps the most
striking instance of this trend Of hui
man nature Is to be seen in the male
high school student. There is a pretty
specimen for you.
This baby fondly believes that the
quintessence of human achievement
is done up tightly in one large and
beautiful package. to wit, himself. II
there ever Is a masculine entity that
regards itself as the very peak OF
creation, the average high school boy
Is that interesting being. He honest
ly does not see why he does not know
1t ALL" Nothing but five or ten years
of experience will convince him other
wise.
Certainly he has the appearance of a
man. He wears the same clothes
often Is much broader In the shoulders
and thicker in the arms and legs than
men who have done something in the
world. The boy feels himself to be
every inch man, and no doubt he is
but not In the way he thinks.
X X X X
Our own ideas. then, and the
thoughts of others daily mix and jun
BILE in almost ineXtricable confusion
and we are lucky, indeed, if out OF
this conglomeration come only happy
beautiful thoughts that help us along
| life'S way.
1t follows that every one of us will
hear, now and then. something which
we would not willingly hear, or which
hurts our feelings, or which we Sc
cretly know to be true, but would
shrink from acknowledging, or which
Is utterly false, which perhaps Injuries
us worst of all.
There is no man or woman in the
world, however high or worthy, who
Is free from these back slaps of IL
will. There is something perverse in
human nature which makes II
secretly revel in the opposite of geof
will. This was all the French epigram
matist meant when he wrote, There
IS something not displeasing in the
misfortunes of our best friends" He
who does not recognize the truth oi
that saying is fooling himself.
Each one of us will, at some time
or other, either hear tidings of il
will relative to our precious selves
or some kind friend will make it a
point to tell us about it, If we have
had the good fortune to miss 1t OF
our own behalf.
In the former case, il is we'll to bear