The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-12-31
FOR 1897: LET'S LOOK OURSELVES
IN THE FACE

The beginning of New Year always
appeals to the individual, who is easily
led into thinking that something new
really starts and affords an opportunity
for inaugurating better days for human
beings, governments and associations.
The attitude thus created is not with
over again must be made real by the labor
of the person affected. The reader of this
article, if so minded, can make the era of
new events come true but it depends en-
tirely upon the will power, the stamina
and the courage of the party involved.
Since there are, no doubt, hundreds
of people in Key West who will look for
ward to 1887 with bright hopes and high
aspirations, it is not amiss to give them
some encouragement. There is no reason
why individuals should not take the New
Year as time for checking up, to weigh
progress made and to plan advances for
the future. Every man and every woman
desires improvement and to dwell upon
your own state in frankness with yourself
is the first step forward.
Throwing aside all the advanced talk
of mental scientists it may be assumed that
the first duty of the individual is self-de
velopment. Properly understood, this in
cludes all the rest of the program. The
person who develops properly is able to
understand others and to make himself, or
herself, understood in a world that is COM
pick with problems and confused with er
ror. 1t is an achievement that few of us
realize.
We believe it is good plan to give
few hours to self-analysis regularly and
New Years day is apt to find us in such a
mood. AS practical method, let us sug
gest that you write down, for your private
contemplation, list of vices and virtues,
making sort of balance sheet of your
personal qualities. When you have done
this, study the results bit.
Spread out little further and include
a listing of your activities in your COM
munity. Put down in writing, if you will,
the names of the local organizations that,
you think, deserve your support and also,
the operations in your area that do not, in
your opinion, deserve your sanction. When
you finish, check up on your contribution,
in service or cash, to make these agencies
function. 1t will give you an idea of what
lies ahead of you.
You should not fail to note that you
are complex human being, with three
phases intermingled to make a person
What of your physical condition? What
of your mind? What of your spiritual
nature? Are you conscious of re-
cent improvement in any line or does
Illustration register as you contemplate
what might have been? Anyway, look at
the report frankly and make up your mind
1t is the step toward getting sOmewheres.
No personal inventory would be COM
plete without some analysis of your use of
time and money. Time is the essence of
life, as someone has we'll said and most of
us waste much of it without ever thinking
that we are spending life itself. Money, a
necessary commodity under present civil
ization, often assumes strange forms in
our thinking and therefore we fail to es-
tablish correct personal relationship to
it. Time and money, vital to every life,
should not be confusing but both will
bother us unless we do some clear think
ing Il. Ms
Anyway, as 1887 gets underway there
should be some realization of the duty in
volved in developing our individual per-
sonalities to the highest possible level, al
desire to understand, as far as we may,
the task assumed and firm determine
ton to make progress toward the goal in
the days that stretch before, U.s..
Washburne1 school I'M Chicago has a