Evening star., 1933-03-17
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Likes are better than dislikes, less
corroding, more atuned to the modern
spirit.
This is a simple enough statement,
IN theory, but few seem to grasp 1t in
practice.
Yet it is exactly there that it is
worth while
Life consists in what man Is think
ing Of all day." said wise man.
II we expand 1t, to take in the result
ing doing. it will do no harm to the
thought or principle.
Since the earliest days mankind has
been thinking about this problem. In
ancient times arose classification Of
homely philosophers. called stoics. who
tried to force themselves to be indiffer-
ent to that which did not concern them.
They thought that II they could prove
not concern them in the least, they
could be Indifferent to 1t.
Probably for a few brave souls this
line Of thought sufiiced: Perhaps 1t led
them to q true balance between liking
and not liking.
There was much good in their way Of
looking at life, so much, indeed, that
thousands of persons today actually are
stoics without knowing It.
He who looks at facts more clearly,
however, will not be satisfied to say a
thing Is Indifferent to him, when all
too often he realizes that he Is a liar
when he says it.
There Is spirit of common sense and
fair play which stands behind many a
man, urging him on to be honest with
himself, to say white Is white, and black
Is black, when things SO appear to him.
He cannot fool himself, and therefore
Is driven into cul-de-sac. from which
there Is no emergence unless he cuts
the knot, and attempts to convert his
dislikes into likes, II the thing can be
done.
If it cannot, that is an end Of it.
Proper dislikes are essential to being a
real human being. These optimistic
souls who never find anything wrong
with anything are not the men and
women who ever bring reform of evils
into the world. They carry the attempt
to like as many things as possible far
beyond its proper sphere. So much
must be said, in order to arrive at even
an approximation Of a correct basis
for our homely philosophy Of acquiring
more likes than dislikes.
There will be many fields in which
the individual will find that it is merely
a matter of thinking. II he wishes to
convert what he thinks to be a positive
dislike into true liking
Perhaps such a like will never quite
come up to his instructive ones. That
would be expecting too much. Much
can be done. however. If one tries.
1t is the not trying that keeps hu-
man being penned up in iron bars of
his own making, against which he fu-
tilely beats his hands for the remainder
of a lifetime.
Let us beware, in the first place, Of
instructive dislikes, as We call them.
Often they are not as innate as We like
to think them. They are the products
Of quite immature thinking. or have
been wished of" on us, as the phrase
has it, by the positive utterances Of
others
Thousands OF persons who believe
they hate cats" have been made the
victims Of the dislikes of others. Little
children, left to themselves, have an in
stinctive preference for this animal
over the dog. The latter, with his
rough, ready manner, is likely to
frighten them, whereas the quiet grace
of the house cat lures their petting
fingers. But some we'll meaning adult,
entering upon the scene, teaches them
to frighten poor kitty away. Ever after
ward they think that they harbor a
genuine dislike, when the aversion was
made for them by some one else.
We instance the cat. because 1t Is
such a very common antipathy.
Exactly the same psychology applies
to every other branch of thinking, as
instanced in likes and dishkes. A boy