Evening star., 1932-12-12
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

necessarily works against the trammels
of ennui. Boredom In all It's aspects
is the result of the influence Of the
usual; interest comes through the un-
usual, the new, the strange.
Now the old cannot become the new,
unless the mind deliberately sets out
to create 1t anew, not in actuality, but
in the mind and heart Of the beholder.
No doubt that was what st. Paul
meant, at least in part, when he spoke
of creating the new man, at least part
of what he meant. The old attitude
Of acceptance must be displaced by a
new way of looking at things, q way
which says plainly enough: "Since
pass along this street every day, must
make an extra effort to see it as it
is, not as 1t impresses me. The way 1t
strikes me Is not the way 1t is. Or
is it? I confess I am not sure, but I
belie-e that the actuality of thing
is often the way it first hits one, not
last strikes one. Here snap judgments
are more apt to be sound than with
human beings; first opinions Of men
and women are likely to be faulty, ow-
ing to the hidden, inner and secret
complexities of minds, hearts, DISPOSE
tionS.
THE line of a street seldom, II ever,
| changes, at least to any great extent
the height of a building remains fairly
constant; the perspective much the
same. If desire to see these old
things as new things, evidently I must
freshen up my eyes, in some way or
| other"
Having delivered this lecture TO ones
self, the resident determined upon see
ing his city as the stranger sees it will
cast about for means Of new sort
Of eye bath.
This Is net as difficult thing to do
as it might sound. Nor Is 1t unusual.
Most old residents of a city do it all
time. Who is there, passing the
Capitol at night, say on rainy night,
who has not suddenly looked at it with
new interest, sudden flash Of in
| spiration, almost?
| Or one is walking around the Tidal
Basin on sunny afternoon, thinking
of nothing in particular. when all at
once through the trees he happens to
catch glimpse Of the Monument in all
its purity?
Then his eyes are opened, is If he
were an utter stranger, and had not
been seeing the great shaft from child
hood.
He becomes a newcomer, If only for
an instant, with the ability to catch the
true glintS of the scene, to pass in re-
view the moments Of his nation, back
to the times Of George Washington, and
beyond.
The noble panorama Of his country's
history sweeps past him in flash, just
as drowning mans entire life is said
to well up In the mind as he goes down
| for the third time.
| None of us who lives here should
ever let the city become stale to him.
We should make a serious attempt, a
daily attempt, to see it in its infinite
variety, not only as it is, but especially
as it has been, and as it will be.
This win be particularly necessary
In regard to the work now going on
below Pennsylvania avenue. Here the
newcomer Is at loss, as he looks at
! the vacant spaces, the red clay, the
buildings in course of construction.
Only the resident of the District of
Columbia or vicinity can know how
| washington looked, day by day, in the
past, and realize how differently 1t is
destined to appear in the future.
1t is precisely because Washington
! Is city of the future that the neces-
sity exists for looking at it with eyes
which really see, rather than with
vision dinmed by the accustomed and
the usual.
The past, the present, and the future,
these three meet in peculiar sense in
| every block, in very street, In every
building. public and private, In the
National Capital Let us keep our eyes
open to our everyday wonder,