Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-15
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

He thinks that every one he knows
ought to speak kindly to him!
He forgets that he Is not as interesting
to them as to himself, and that unless
he makes them fear him. or respect
him for his power Tin which are In
cluded money and publicity they will
treat him as they please.
How they please depends upon q
hundred different matters, ranging from
headache to cold, from a setback
IN business to a poor score at golf, from
personal snub they may have - ,eived
themselves (for the application Of this
rule is universally to the latest quarrel
at home.
"Sometimey" folk are interesting. and
Tor that reason no sensitive person
should permit their vagaries to have an
inimical effect upon the spirit.
Surely 1t Is the spirit where the harm
they do strikes home. II upon occasion
one doubts the reality of the spirit Of
man, he may set his fears at rest in
this singular contemplation.
In the spirit, and in the spirit Of
man alone. lies the target Of the dis
courteous, the unfair, the thoughtlesS,
the Indifferent.
1t is not the body they strike, nor yet
the mind, but certain intangible some
thing or other which some call the ego
and others the soul.
The spirit Is just as good word, and
means about as much. 1t Is sensitive,
soft, easily hurt depressed, dispirited,
as we say; elated, exalted, glorifled
human being must keep his spirit
receptive, or 1t becomes merely so ouch
shavings. good for little, either for him.
self or others, save q slow fire Of anger.
That Is why a sensitive person need
not lament that he is not spiritually as
tough as the carapace OF the tortoise,
or as hard as the shell of a beetle.
whose outer covering is five times as
strong, in proportion, as the bones Of
man.
A man is not a beetle nor q tortoise.
He may rejoice in his sensitivity,
even as q good radio receiving set.
What II there are some features he
does not like? The inanimate thing
Of wood and wire. which We call .
radio set probably has obscure WITCHES.
in its tubes, at some Of the stun 1t
sends forth.
Just as sensitivity is . great thing
for q radio, so 1t Is for q human being
It Is better TO resent "sometimey
people" perhaps. than not to mind
them at all.
There is Just one qualification:
Do not mind them too much!
1t is necessary TO keep in mind tbs
hundred and one circumstances which
give rise to "sometimeyness." and to
realize that some are personal and
some are not.
Personality!
All gets back to personality.
Every person has q personality, or
many personalities, indeed, each one q
rejection of the man as he sees him.
self. as others see him.
His various personalities do. such
Slight-of-hand tricks with each other
popping up here, vanishing there. that
the man himself Is the last person in
the world to know any one Of them.
He gropes along in the light and the
dark-sometimes in the light-doing
the best he can with each one OF them,
fondly imagining that he presents q
united front to the world.
Let him beware Of too much some
timeyness," however. 1t is an easy
blot to fall into. and q dif1cult one to
fall out OF. Some may not take the
time to stop and figure you out. And
so the "sometimey person" ofendS
needlessly and uselessly.