Arkansas State press., 1951-11-23
EDITORIALS < VIEWS 2azl9zIS1
The Meaning Of Life
BY Robert Durr

BY Robert Durr
When AZ is gong we'll do ask the meaning OF
life 1t sufficient then just to be alive In the enjoyment OF
ht - ACTIVITY and successful achievement existence is TAX
en- o granted and enjoyed for its sake just
Beauty and love- As Emerson has said beauty its
euse for being and is life when ii zestfu and joyous
But there comes into life periods of depression, OF
Illustration of struggle against seemingly overwhelming OBJ
saces Periods Of i'll health overwok of strain of anxiety
of misfortune Then it ask What the purpose of
istance? What the good Of all? Has life any meaning,
is only the caprcous Gift of a foruitous universe?
have given good deal of thought to this problem both
in connection with the events of my life and with the
events of many other lives that have been disclosed in all dra
matte detail to sympathetic study And have to the
conclusion that the sole purpose of life far the individual
is concerned is growth through struggle.
Lie is struggle In truth, struggle to be an
nseqarabe element of all existence It is just this very fact
that so frequently causes the complaint What is the good
of it all?
Growth feel sure the purpose of it all Life means
opportunity for growth the part of the individual And we
only by of actvity-or the psychologists call
it purposefu activity Not to be active sagnae atrophy
crystalline Movement is the sign life than
that 1t is the essence of life
Life from point of view, is simply succession of
inevitable exerons. If did of
puposeful activity the into the world
would learn how to walk; how talk how
hands, how to think
After the infant period passed. struggle through
education Here too attain growth only by of mental
and manual activity AT its best struggle and
arduous endeavor which has its strains its anxees its OBJ
stadles its Illustrations All of these scholastic difficulties of
growing and developing youth could be avoided simply by not
receiving education But with the possibility of such
simple solution of pedagogc difficulties,
would avail himself of this way intellectual strug
giles We wish education with all its strains and difficulties
wish grow and develop intellectually We may
times envy the savages who bask ndoeny in the sunshine
of the South Islands, but are really DESTROYS Of
substituting such mentally idle for the intellectual
training of the modern chronological world.
When the struggle and strain Of education is over
relapse life of and supneness Not al all
The effort of life has hardly begun We face
career This calls for every energy Here again
and bitter Illustrations Al the trials which humanity
heir seem the human environment Of Tho
business world Scya Charybds through which the
individual carefully his bark if he would reach
successful heavens
Meanwhile marriage beckdhs from afar This in
prospect like hacyon cruise amid Elysan Islands But in
actual experience discover that marriage has been but the
portal to more struggle and effort One of the difficult
things in life the human adjustment rendered necessary
by marriage marriage result any kind of harmony
of living All those pampered qualities which
daughter were charming peccadios the eyes
adong parents appear nexcusab faults which must
be shufned off before life a successful
stage Those indeed fortunate who in this marital
struggle attain to a permanent harmony and happiness
To the mated life is eventually added another factor Of
dffcuty-progency the individual has anxetics
fore they nothing the anxeeS and faded in
child raising What difficulties of child health of child deve
opment child tranng What financial strains and stneen
cies! unforeseen disturbances the normal tranquility