Show kathleen norris says dull days allaead for many bell syndicate features r IN 01 even in peace times kanj a pretty wile discovers that early married life ix 4 V 1 e no u s business and that most young husbands dons liko to see their 1 w ves 1 i ng by KATHLEEN NORRIS is ft r TS ONE thing to be a war widow and be bored and x lonely for three years writes phoebe cutter from minneapolis but its another thing to have your man come home dissatisfied with every thing discouraged about everything unwilling to make the slightest effort to rebuild the happiness wo we once had sam and I 1 were married civit alvo years yeara ago the tha letter goes on 1 I am not prettier than the average run of girls but I 1 am pretty 27 now and still loving to me meet et my friends to plan good times and to dance it seems to me hard to think that all that is out butof of my life forever im a good manager and housekeeper and despite the fact that we have a daughter almost tour four did part time work during the tha war and kept our financial head above water sam has his old job back but he la is dissatisfied with it hla his old bos boss s is dead and a man sam trained is boss and iri making aking the most of it when I 1 ask him to break away he says he be feels too old and tired to try for a change he is 34 but seems much older than that ile he talks of appio approaching aching inflation and depression unemployment me n tand and hard times he thinks I 1 have spoiled and that sho she ilk like e him of course if he be will make jakeno no effort to win her affect affection ioni so small a girl to Is not likely forgive to give it nothing matters mailers during the war my mother lived with me she is a trained nurse and is now taking cases again when he first returned she suggested that she leave us but sam protested saying wearily to me later that it matter matte r how many persons lloyed alt altti us Is his general position 1 nothing matters ile he drags quietly through days of uncongenial work comes home to sit silently in the sitting room until I 1 say dinner Is ready read the papers much or listen to the rad jadlowe loWe have been once together to movies since ho he got home then it was wan a war film through which he trembled and muttered all the time my heart Is sick with pity for him but I 1 dont know I 1 what chatto to do I 1 consulted a psychiatrist telling him I 1 thought sam was a borderline case ile he only laughed and said it would be years before they got through the genuine cases and came holthe io the possible ones and meanwhile men admire me and want to take me places for din nerl and dancing the tha letter concludes and the best years of my life are going by and I 1 dont see anything ahead except housework baby care and the endless efforts to cheer sam what to do phoebe my dear I 1 say in answer this wont last this Is the slow convalescence from war fever that thousands hundred of thousands of men are suffering and must endure for a while to sa sam m civilian an life with its vagueness its frivolities its serene unconsciousness of what he has been going through tigh Is ile he cant get use to it ile he has been starved himself in prison camp for weary weeks and months he be has seen strong courageous young men starve tar e to death trivialities madden him to see you concerned about new bedcovers bed covers the cost of lamb chops ZO go co on sunday picnics with mapsy the fit of hat rouses in him emotions of such singer anger and despair as almost wreck his reason he ha knows the world Is topsy that tho the powers of good are temporarily p pora rily helpless against the powers of greed politics stupidity that are ruling now but bitt gradually as order emerges emerge from chaos all over the world and here and there progress Is seen this notion nation and that struggling back to decent rule to now new ideals of statehood and citizenship sam will recover co ver too bour your good times may have to wait for awhile but they will cot come no even in peacetimes manya many a pretty young wife discovers that early married ufa life is a very serious business andi and that most young husbands dont like to seo see their wives dat dancing icing and th this IS Is 19 postwar time sometime well learn that recovery reco vory from war la Is almost aej as bad as war itself it the he men who dlo die from a clean bullet wound who pay for the war its tho the others like your sam who co coma me home sickened with tho the waste and suffering of tho the camps to find the old life equally bewildering and disappointing take time to win him back make him important do the things he likes to do go off into the country with for sunday picnics just you three read books read some of the thousand books that are telling us too latel how this war might have been avoided discuss these books with him and let him talk with the right guidance heu hell recover from all tills this and the world will meanwhile carry your tiny speck of responsibility courageously and make your corner of the world as bright as s you can |