Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 182, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1919 — BE HAPPY TODAY [ARTICLE]

BE HAPPY TODAY

.. No Sense in Rostponing Period of Joyousness. Much Good Sense in Writer’s Assertion That, Following the Great War, Most of Us Take Things Too Seriously. There is not only a possibility but a probability that most of us in these stressed times are losing the fine flo-wer anl zest of life by taking life and ourselves too seriously. The mistake, for it is a mistake, is natural. . Wfe are just emerging from a . war that ‘may «or may not have been the Armageddon of prophecy, but it certainly resembled that vast gathering of the nations in its great outlines, and nations as well as Individuals are still engaged, so to speak, In stock-taking after its termination, If Indeed we have come to the end of It. Some are looking forward to a new business era of unprecedented opportunity in trade and money-making; others are looking apprehensively for a still further unsettlement of the world’s equilibrium incidental to the peace-making, and others still are looking for a new heaven and new earth and *the dawn of millennial peace ancfhappiness. But all are looking to the future and putting their hopes of happiness in its keeping. All seem to have put off by general cogent the attainment of happiness ‘until tomorrow. Happiness is still a thing to come, not a thing we may and should and can receive today along the common road of everyday life. We are all too much Inclined to run hither and thither wherever the loudest voice may call attention, instead of quietly pursuing the even tenor of our way, taking account of what happiness means to us Ipdividu; ally. We must, of course, bear manfully our part of the world’s burdens, but our shoulders are not broad or strong enough to bear, like Atlas, the weight of the whole world. Especially is the summer season one that should invite us to repose, joyousness and happiness if we will but enjoy its lavish beauty and fulness of content. We should try to forget for a few weeks at least, for a few months if possible, the storm and stress and the wbrld. The summer is nature’s season of fruition, of recuperation, of enjoyment. Don’t waste it in fretting and repining, but drink in its inspiration as your lungs inhale the invigorating breeze that comes over 3,000 miles of ocean. The world probably will not run off the track while you are doing this, and when you come back to your usual work you will be all the bfetter able to help steady it in its course —Exchange.