Facing Life

There is a land of near distances-the land where we trudge along the small and routine round of our daily work. But there is also "a land of far distances"-the land where we find interests other than those that belong to the day's work, and where we may put into action powers other than those required to perform our daily tasks. If we would live a balanced life, we must take account of both these lands. While not neglecting the duties and obligations that come within the one, we must not ignore the privileges and pleasures to which the other invites us. To do so, is to miss much of the flavor and fragrance of life.

Man was made for far wider and more varied interests than can be found in the narrow sphere of the office, the shop, the store. We should so order our lives that there shall be respites from the daily grind of toil; when thought shall be set free to explore other fields; when the faculties of emotion and imagination shall be let loose to range in higher realms; when the soul shall have a chance to go forth into the "land of far distances" and respond to the beauty and music of the world. He who neglects to do this, will thereby permit parts of his elemental nature to remain dormant from lack of use, the result of which will be a dwarfed personality. This will be the inevitable experience of "the man in the office, whose horizon is fixed by its walls; of the man in the factory, who knows only the thoughts of the factory; of the man in the laboratory, who knows only the pursuits of the laboratory," and of every man who shuts himself up to any one area of thought and action.

It is, of course, essential to the highest life that we shall be faithful and diligent in the commonplace task. But if we would live a live of life and full measure, we must not be negligent or indifferent toward those interests and opportunities which lie beyond the day's routine.