St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1949-10-14
MACS MUSINGS

MACS MUSINGS
Continued from page q
experience, training, understand
ing. or opportunity. A woman said
TO me once:
Il have committed many .
fault and error In my lie, but
at the time did 30 I hadn't the
understanding to do any better.
II We could always see into the
heart and mind and soul Of an
other we should find that this
Is always the cause Of his i'm
perfection!
"One person may find II easy to
be absolutely honest, since the
people In his world have faced
facts honestly and with courage
whether they were pleasant or not.
BY precept and example he has
been taught that the fortnight
way Of life Is, in the long run,
the all-round profitable one. But
another person has always found
that ungarnished facts have made
the people Of his world disagree
able or fearful. As a method of
self-defense he has learned to
evade or camoufage unpleasant
facts. He has yet to develop the
courage to stand up to life, but
while he learns we can withhold
the weakening influence Of our
condemnation.
TN money matters one person
may be conservative to the point
Of stinginess. His may have been
a background Of lack and fearful
anticipation Of the future. To act
differently is impossible for him
until he develops another set Of
values. The person whose attitude
toward money Is one Of flamboy-
ant carelessness, on the other
hand, has a different kind Of
background and needs a different
set OF values.
"A young woman lamented re-
Gently that a friend Of hers was
given to conversational exaggera-
lions. Why, why couldn't he stick
to facts, she wondered. But her
friend does not exaggerate con-
sciously. A persons mind accom-
modates itself to his feelings and
her friend feels so intensely his
beliefs and his joys and sorrows
that he finds ordinary language
inadequate in expressing him
self. To say that he had a mildly
unpleasant day at his work would
have seemed untrue to him. To be
sure, the events that had made
the day unpleasant might have
seemed insignificant to another
person, but not to him. So his
mind exaggerated the facts to
agree with his feelings. On the
other hand and on another day
is optimism lie unbounded. He feels
so good and confident that even
unimportant facts must, by the
magic Of his mind, be made to
agree whether they do or not.
"An Of us see the world,
people. facts, not with our eyes
alone, but with our mind and
emotions, and our mind and
emotions are a. different from
our neighbOrs, our friends, or
our cO.wOrlxers' a. the cOndi-
tons Of our life have been.
ITO dislike the whole person
because he falls short in some
particular aspect Of his nature Is
to shut out our life an infinite
number Of blessings. He may have
gone far in refining and polishing
himself in some ways and lag far
behind in others.
THE Book Of Psalms is q
matchless mixture Of praise and
imprecation. The poet Of the
Psalms reaches the peak when he
praises his God for His loving
kindness and righteousness. He
reaches also the depths of human
hate and vengeance when he prays
for calamities, plaques, and all
sorts of affliction to befan his
enemies.
1T Is better we have accepted
this man of vagaries and tenn
permanent than that we should
miss his gift OF beauty and truth
because a part of his soul was yet
enmeshed in human limitation.
1T is better always that we
shohAu HINSPN NAg bOOAAlGoo u
friends and families and CO.
workers with their adhering faults
than that we should reject their
faults with their adhereing charms
and virtues.
I'VE may not always be able to
determine just why peoples ac-
tons are what they are, for they
have complex beginnings and de-
vious ways Of developing. but we
can have faith enough to look
through peoples Inconsistencies
to their good intentions and so ex-
press enough tolerance, gentle
ness to make It easy for them to
develope the qualities that make
for better living. They want to do
II. Everyone experiences regret
when he falls short Of q good and
pracious performance. He appre-
ciates deeply the understanding
persons who bypass occasions To