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Show Kathleen Norris Says: Upon Making the Most of Our Luck (Bell Syndicate WNU Srrvlce.) Th serene belief that we are entitled to everything good in thit life, often blinds a girl to the fact thut marriage is not merely a stepping stone to individual advancement or pleasure. By KATHLEEN NORRIS ONCE there vyas an aviator avi-ator who took an Arab from the heart of a burning desert into one of the garden spots of Europe. The Arab for the first time saw magnificent hotels, shops, gardens, trees. He was disturbed. dis-turbed. Could it be possible, he asked, that any God was greater or kinder than his God? But it was when he taw a river that hii whole philosophy suffered a terrible shock. Here was crystal, Icy, miraculous water racing along, free to whosoever would have It, Inexhaustible. He asked how long the gods would continue this exhibition, exhibi-tion, and was told that as far as men knew the river had always flowed and would always flow. "Here Is a strange thing," he pondered. "In my country we must dig through the dry, dry sand for water, and when we reach it, it is scanty, warm, and tastes of camel manure." And he decided, when he returned home, and was rotating to his people the marvels he had seen, to make no mention of the river. Fall to Appreciate Advantages. This exquisite little story is included in-cluded In "Wind, Sand and Stars," St. Exupcry's book. Nothing that I've ever read has ever brought to me more clearly the blessing that is cold clean water, and the shameful thought of our unappreciation of everyday ev-eryday privileges. We take so much for granted! Another story that brought that home with terrible force I read in a newsnnner a few weeks a so. It was contained In one of the many gallant letters from England that are Ailing our press today. It was written by a woman who had had a fearful experience in London raids. She had served the sulTerlng in a dozen capacities; advising, cooking, guiding, nursing, reassuring. For 13 days and nights she had lived through horrors of fear. She was bruised, sore, exhausted; her feet burned by hot ashes. When it was over she went down to a friend's house in the blessed quiet country. She revelled in a hot bath, a clean bed. But she found herself so overwhelmed by the sheer luxury of relief from danger, hot water, fresh sheets, and above all, by the bliss of having her feet bare at night, that she could hardly sleep. Simple Nerds Rule Life Elsewhere. Almost everywhere in the world Uic basic, simple needs of life rule the thoughts of men and women. To obtain work, food, shelter, these are the burning anxieties of their lives. Just to have a roof at night, to be able to put a loaf of bread or a bowl of macaroni or potatoes on the table three times a day; Just to feel that for a few months at least there will be work, and pay for that work these are the favors for which millions and millions of our t fellow creatures humbly ask their gods. Millions of the women in oriental countries have one gala costume, and it lasts them all their lives and is handed down to younger women when they die. Millions of them use blackened old iron p..ts and pans that have seen generations of service. serv-ice. Not for them the pleasantness of beauty shops, perfumes and soaps, lacy underwear, spring hats, whipped cream, bottled cherries, bridge parties. Fumilics there could live year in and year out on Just what the up-keep of a car comes to; 45,000,000 cars are moving about our country today. APPRECIATION LACKING American women reading thit article arti-cle will travel in fantasy with Miss Norris to visit other women in London, Lon-don, China and an Arab philosopher in the desert. She etches the pattern of their life in well chosen chapters, revealing their humility for smalt favors, which most Americans accept ac-cept casually as their birthright. When I was last In China an amah who had been the nurse of my sister's sis-ter's children came to the hotel to make herself useful to us. She took entire charge of our rooms and slept on a rug in the bathroom; we could not persuade her to anything more comfortable. During the course ot this stay I happened to give her a length of heavy dark green felt that I had used as typewriter cover. The next day the amah appeared with neat squares' of it sewed to her clothes, on elbows and knees. The autumn weather was insufferably insuffera-bly hot, and it seemed a strange time for her to make any warmer the suffocating bundle of patched, cleaned, mended old garments that she wore. "What else could she do?" my sister said. "Amah has no bedroom closet, no bureau, no place to store things. She lives In a dusty open compound with a rabble of children and grandchildren, cousins and relatives rela-tives swarming about her, to say nothing of a goat, a dog, a few chickens, chick-ens, wash buckets, cooking furnace, fodder pile, chopping block, all the accumulated possessions of centuries centu-ries of Chinese life. The cold weather weath-er is coming, and Amah put the warm cloth Just where It would do the most good." Find Joy in Simple Things. Well, there is something to be said tor the reality of that sort ot living. It never grows monotonous and it never grows dull. Just the race to keep food Inside you and famine at arms-length is a thrilling business. A feast, two or three times a year, is a real feast; the whole family anticipates with Joy the moment when the roasted pig or goose, the rice and hot tea, the sauces and pastes shall be ready, and remembers the occasion for months. A new garment, a few extra ex-tra pennies, and unexpected bit of good luck give these peoples Joys that we never know. Most of them live, and they have developed a strangely stoical philosophy about those who die. Being always face to face with death seems to rob it of most of its terrors. But it is a pity that we take so quietly for granted the advantages of our own position. If we appreciated appreciat-ed them there is not a woman in America who would not feel herself fortunate, would not take a changed attitude toward life and toward her own problem, and would not want to put herself from now on in a position po-sition of giving rather than of taking. Taking love for granted is one ot the dangers of this serene belief of ours that we are entitled to everything every-thing good in this life, and that It Is the duty of everyone around us to see that we get it. Love is a wonderful, perishable, changeable thing. Nine divorces out (f ten are caused by husbands and wives who regard it as a settled, set-tled, accepted fact; a thing that needs no further consideration or culture. Too many wives forget that marriage is not merely a stepping stone to individual advancement or pleasure, and that to have love in your life is to be counted among the privileged ot mankind. |
