The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-02-07

The need of constructive phi
losophy of life if one is to have
total health is an unacceptable ex-
uerience in mature and thought
full people. To be sure, a mans
creed and his character may be
utterly incongruous. A creed can
be inherited, or borrowed from
ones associates, or lightly acquired
bv superficial thinking A man for
tunate in his emotional relationships
may be happy and well co-ordinated,
while his creed about life's total
meaning ought logically to lea-'e
him hopeless; and another man with
the most optimistic and stimulating
of creeds may be distracted and
wretched.
One must break through the
crust of such superficial creedal-
ism before one reaches the real
situation. Underneath our inner
tied, borrowed, or casually argued
beliefs there is always, in some de-
gree and form, a mans underlying
attitude toward, and idea about,
life's basic meaning.
We cannot live with anyone or
anything decade after decade
without accommodating a general
impression; much less can we live
with life itself and the world that
encompasses it, without taking on,
whether we want to or not, habitual
attitudes toward it, and so acquir-
ing characteristic conceptions Of 1t.
The result of this unavoidable
psychological process is a mans real
faith about life, often widely diff
ferent from his formally held be-
liefs. This vitality acquired phi
losophy" is one Of the most power
full influences in personal life.
Sometimes a crisis occurs when
under the impact of shock the in
dividual becomes aware that the
beliefs he supposed he held are not
his real beliefs at all; that life has
long been making on him another
impression altogether; that this
underlying, gradually accumulated
attitude toward. and concert Of, life,
cannot longer be suppressed; that at
the center of his personality is now
a faith-a total view of the mean
ing of existence in this universe
which is profoundly affecting him
and with which. one way or an
other, he must deal. This crisis is
also an opportunity. The man is
facing one of the most significant
facts in human experience; the
power of ones actually operative
faith concerning life's meaning
either to help or hinder the making
of real person.
TIE most impressive statements
of life-pbilnspohies are not formal
creeds but unconventional az
firmations Of the way life has come
to look to different individuals.
Every year, saws Mark Twain. mil
lions of people die who. as they
come to LIES end. scott at it in
their hesrts-"scoff at the pitiful
world. and the useless universe and
violent. cortemptible human race "
To say that such negative faith
concerning life's ultimate meaning
has nothing to do with betne or not
beirg an adequate ard satisfactory
person. is. of course. fantastic.
"side BY side with the decline
Of RELIGIOUS life" writes Jung, "the
neurnses grow noticeahlv more fire.
ouent." The reason for this con-
sequence becomes the more appar-
ent when ore considers that in the
gredual accumulation Of ones actual
and operative faith concerning life
as a whole, we are dealing with a
two-wav process: Orr rr'I''0 e~'o-
tions express themselves about life.
adm our theories about life react
with powerful effect upon our emo
tions. Ones dominant faith about
life's meaning Is no merely theo-
retical affair: 1t is rooted in day
by-dav attitudes and emotional re-
sponses. and 1t reacts with potent
eject upon them.
This process Of developing a