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Show Kathleen Norris Says: "Do You Know What You Want?" Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. "We did carpentering, painting, gardening, built walls and window-boxes and a bathroom, and had more fun than we ever had." By KATHLEEN NORRIS SOME women know what they want. Others only know what they don't want. The difference is that between be-tween happiness and unhap-piness, unhap-piness, failure and success. The negative attitude destroys. de-stroys. The positive attitude always constructs. The woman who only knows what she doesn't want talks to you somewhat like this: "Yes, my dear, we unlucky Bakers Bak-ers are still In the same dreadful apartment I dislike that school intensely, in-tensely, but I'm keeping the children chil-dren there, and there's no use moving. mov-ing. Harry's worried about bills and he says we've got to economize if we expect to find a better place, but you simply can't these days. No, he's still with Miller and Miller: dreadful they pay the lowest salaries sal-aries in town, but there's no help for it. It's bills we seem haunted by bills. I hate them as much as anyone, but what can you do?" This woman hates everything in her life; her house, her clothes, her meals, dishwashing and ironing and bedmaking and she does nothing about it. Presently she begins to blame her husband for the whole thing; she convinces herself that she never really loved him, and honestly hon-estly feels that any change would be for the better. She simply can't stand things'the way they are any longer. So another home goes on the rocks simply because the mother and wife takes the negative instead of the positive attitude. Cure Is In Your Heart. If you happen to be one of the women who doesn't want anything she has, but at the same time hasn't formed any definite picture of what she does want, the cure for you lies entirely in your own heart and mind. This is one of the miracles of life, and it is a pity not to take advantage of it. In other words, sfop thinking of what you don't want, and begin to think of what you do. It sounds simple, sim-ple, but it takes some courage, some imagination, some consistency to begin. Once you get started, everything is smooth sailing. Your husband becomes not an obstruction and an enemy, but a partner. The things you dislike in your life become be-come only so many upgrades to be passed on the road. When you get to the top of the slope, you get a finer view. "We have pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps," says a man's letter, which reached me this week. "Everything was going wrong with Tess and me, when she wrote you. Your so-much-older-advlce sounded rather romantic and Impracticable, at first, but we tried it. You said first to look the money question squarely in the eye; this was hard. I wasted in my way and Tess hated any supervision of her expenditures. expendi-tures. But we faced it, decided where we could cut, and took our two boys, then aged 7 and 9, into our councils. My salary was $300 a month, with no rent to pay. Our bills totaled $2,400. It scared us, and we decided that Tess should take part-time work until they were paid. This ended the divorce idea we'd both been entertaining In a half-hearted sort of way. The boys' spending money came down with a rush; we paid oif all but $200 in bills in six months and began to 1. W e seem haunted by bills ..." A NEW ATTITUDE Many women are dissatisfied dissatis-fied with their lots. There are always some problems that are hard to solve, some difficulties that seem almost unbearable at times. As Miss Norris points out, most women know what they don't want, but few know clearly exactly what they do want. The difference in attitude atti-tude can make all the difference differ-ence between happiness and misery. Two letters quoted in today's to-day's article bring this out. The first is from a woman who is complaining about everything ev-erything . . . the apartment, the children's school, her husband's hus-band's salary. The other letter is from a man whose wife had asked Miss Norris for advice some time ago. This couple was drifting toivard divorce. They were just tired of the friction occasioned by life in a crowded crowd-ed apartment, and by the expenses ex-penses that seemed always greater than they had expected. expect-ed. They decided to try the plan Miss Norris outlined. After a few months they were out of debt. A little while later they were able to pay down on a little place in the country. buy government bonds. We talked of nothing but a small country place, cost around $6,000 and one day we found it, shabby, unlived in for years, rather remote, but priced at $3,400. We Jumped at it, did painting, carpentering, gardening, garden-ing, built walls and paths, window-boxes and a bathroom, and had more fun than we've ever had in our lives. That was two years ago; we're out of debt now, the new 'busline 'bus-line runs by our corner, we've been offered $11,000 for our property and wouldn't dream of selling. Everything Rosy Now. "My salary is now $400 and Tess and the boys sell sandwiches and mugs of coffee for 25 cents all day Saturday and Sunday to passersby, down under the trees at the gate. Last season they put more than $900 In the bank, and the boys' college expenses are safe. "We were a negative, unsatisfied, crowded family in a five-room flat, four years ago, a family that knew what it didn't want, but had no Idea what it did. "We were still crowded, In debt, worried, unsympathetic, when we sat down to face the situation and begin to say 'we do,' instead of 'we don't.' Now we are Independent, strong, our boys normal happy youngsters, and my wife and I more united than we were when we were bride and groom. We've lately been Joined by a young lady who takes it for granted that we think her more precious than the Koh-i-noor diamond, and she Is right." This Is a true letter, and the fact is true, too. Change from thinking what you don't want to thinking what you do want, and watch your life shape into a similar miracle. Women Barred From Colleges American colleges and universities, universi-ties, In giving priority to returning veterans and civilian men, are barring bar-ring tons of thousands of women from higher education. Speakers, representing 200 institutions, insti-tutions, urge colleges to provide facilities fa-cilities for women as well as for veterans. Unless a more enlightened enlight-ened policy is adopted toward women wom-en applicants, they stress, many thousands of girl high school graduates gradu-ates will be unable to gain admittance admit-tance to colleges. 1 |