|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 49
To-day men and women are confronted by two tempters which constantly
lure them away from the complete living of the family; one is work, and
the other is comfort. With the majority of people in our modern
industrial democracies work uses up the hours and the energy of life. We
have passed into a time when our habitual material needs are great, and
the products of work are shamelessly diverted to the excessive uses of
comparatively few individuals and groups. Hence millions of workers
march along the narrow dark roads that lead through factories and farms
to the grave. Only little patches of their nervous systems are ever
used, but all their energy flows through these sections day after day,
leaving their lives dull and empty.
Marriage for these workers means decreased earning power for the woman,
with increased needs for the family, especially when the children come.
As one watches the procession of young factory and shop women, with
Sunday finery and some leisure, passing over into draggled factory
mothers, with no finery and no leisure, one marvels at the strength of
the forces with which nature drives them to their destiny. And yet, even
with these hopeless workers, marriage and children mark the heights of
life.
With others, who are economically freer, work has become an obsession. A
Charles Darwin or a Herbert Spencer turns all of life's forces to
shaping facts into science; our industrial leaders mint their hours into
dollars; our reformers give up their lives that social conditions may be
changed; our society leaders trade life for triumphs. Meantime we all
know, or would know if we stopped to consider, that we are here to live
life fully and significantly day by day. But domesticity takes time and
effort, and so the hurrying specialist follows the narrow line of
success until he or she becomes a machine for manufacturing
generalizations, for painting pictures, for performing surgical
operations or for merely getting money. The richest woman in America
said with approval recently that her son was too busy to fall in love.
As industry drives the mass of workers and specialists away from life's
deepest realizations, so the desire to become comfortable, physically
and mentally, through avoiding the deeper experiences of life, robs many
of those who have a large measure of economic freedom. In all periods of
great wealth this disease of ease has afflicted mankind. Life more
abundantly comes only at the price of vigorous living; and love travels
always in company with anxiety. It would be well, says Cicero, to have
children, were it not for the fear of losing them. Let a man apply this
principle to wife, friends, possessions and enthusiasm in general and
life sinks into utter worthlessness.
The love of ease among women is in a measure independent of the
emancipation movement, but the entry of great numbers of young women
into lines of independent livelihood has placed them in a condition
where the ideals of a materialistic and commercial civilization appeal
to them with great force. Many of them have been liberally educated and
are living lives of independence. They lodge in flats or boarding houses
where they have no responsibilities for the routine work connected with
daily living. They carry their own latch-keys; and no one interferes
with their friendships or their pleasures. They read the books they
like, attend the theaters that appeal to them, and avoid people who bore
them. One can easily understand why these young women hesitate before
abandoning their easy conditions for the uncertain economic position of
wife and mother, with a man whose career lies in the future. And yet
here, as everywhere, one must lose one's life to gain it.
What then does daily association of a man and woman who belong together
do for them? It gives gladness and peace, and these are fundamental
conditions for all good and healthful living. It gives incentive to
effort, for a man or woman dares not fail before the one he or she
loves; but, in case of failure, it gives comfort and support, for love
understands and credits intent and effort as highly as achievement. It
complements the powers, for it gives four eyes, four hands and two minds
with but one aim. And in this it does not simply multiply by two, but
the blended powers are far more than two times one. It calls into
activity all the gracious, artistic and altruistic powers of the soul.
Surely these are gifts for which we may well forego some material
comforts, may well work, and even face anxieties unafraid.
Each part of the human unit must educate the other to a realization of
the fulness of life. This education is not entirely dependent on
physical intimacy. It is the development of soul and spirit. It polishes
the manners, cultivates the voice, broadens the judgments, sharpens the
wit. It makes conversation an art and discussion significant. A
woman-hating man or a man-hating woman is an unpolished and half-alive
creature, whether he be a medi�val saint, or she a militant suffragette,
or they both be simply commonplace egoists.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|