Evening star., 1949-12-22
This and That
By Charles E. TraceweH
@ STREET.


Dear Sir:
Very truly. L. ""
Tut, tut, madam!
I don't know how old I am. Come to
think of it, don't even know what year
it is. My friends in feathers and fur do
not know. They seem to have no need of
time. They live in timeless sort of way,
making the most of the days as they come
along.
Looking at them, somehow age seems to
be Of little Importance. Certainly the
knowledge of the year, or the month, or the
week, or the day. hour, minute or second is
a man-made thing. ..- ,.. -,
The creatures, except man, know nothing
Of such things. They have no timepieces,
they carry no watches. and run solely by
what may be called natural time.
Dawn and sunset are what count with the
animals and birds. Recall how the old car
dinal, with his crest. is there looking for
sunhower seed at dawn, the first Of them
all. and how he comes again at twilight,
to eat a bit before going to sleep.
We would all be better of If we stopped
this squirting at clocks and watches, this
eternal rush to the job and back again,
this endlessly wanting to know what time
is it,"
1t is necessary, of course. So many things
are necessary. Holiday time is good time
to think bit about what things are essen
tial and which not essential.
One easy way to get rid Of the tyranny Of
time is to give yourself enough by getting
up earlier. Then the rush may be cut
down to more Seemly pace. So many
persons are in SO much of hurry most OF
the time that they never stop to realize
that some of the worry is their own fault.
not the boss. or the Governments.
If we give ourselves more time to do
things we have more time. It is as easy
as that. We take off the one end, to put
on the other, and the result is that we do
not hurry 50 much. Try to keep people
off your heels by stepping out more briskly.
The end Of a year. the beginning of a new
one. are good times to think about slowing
down.
AS for how old a person is or isn't. it is
the merry heart, after all, that makes gentle
friends
The world seems to have built up totally
false ideas of age. Here again too much
stress is placed on the time element. Every
one knows Of some happy soul no one thinks
of as old. yet who is very old, as the ticking
clocks would proclaim.
Marking of the time element in our lives
by the tick-tock method Is clever thing,
but like so much other human cleverness,
it has its plain drawbacks.
If we would live more the way the animals
and birds do, we might come to better
realization Of what is really essential. Water
shortages in great cities have brought again
the realization that we have been talked.
shouted, exhorted into supercleanliness. The
question is, Is so much cleanliness neces-
sary? The old folks didn't think so. Bed
rooms were cold, and people slept in their
underwear, between blankets, not linen; they
had hot brick or water bottle at their
feet and the breath steamed from the
mouth. The morning ablutions were dash
Of cold water in the face and a hurrying
down to the drum stove in the dining ROOM
If people snelled, no one ever said anything
about it. Some of the old folks stoutly de-
clare that people didn't smell then. Maybe
they didn't
They took one bath q week, in round
wooden tub placed on the kitchen floor
before the wood-fed range. The Saturday
night bath was a real thing, not something
to joke about.
They didn't need so much water.
Perhaps we would do better today without
so much timekeeping. It might be a good
thing to forget how old you are. Who wants
to remember, anyway? The main thing Is
to make good use of the present, since the
past day is gone and the next day is yet
to come. The eternal round has beeen going
on so long that forgetting it for lifetime
will do no harm. In that way. every child Is
an old, and every old child again, and
there is no difference between the teen-ager,
with her glossy hair. and the elderly woman
with faded hair. These exterior signs are not
what count. Every one knows this, but too
often we all forget it. What counts is the
kind heart, the word Of praise, the helpful
hand. the prayer at the right time. Let us
be young in hope, and old In good; young
In enthusiasm, old in real determination.