Show KATHLEEN NORRIS Must She Fret Over Trivialities Bell Syndicate Features By KATHLEEN NORRIS WORRYING is a fault and a TV habit It Is also stupid But of this faulty stupid habit many women make a virtue They are proud of ot their worrying It nearly drives everyone mad but they are meekly resignedly proud of it Take the wife of the man who writes the following letter He Jim is 40 his wife is 36 These are wonderful ages the very cream of life ife But for Rose the cream is curdled The girls and I love Mama writes Jim or rather typewrites on paper that shows he is the head of a wood and coal business Weve got everything we wanta want want- a nice home friends friends and and were we're all normal people no sickness of body or mind So 50 what can keep a sensible woman like Rose fretting and worrying nagging and complaining complaining com com- gaining is more than I can see She says her mother was a great worrier and says it as if it it were something rather fine I Others Dont Don't Fuss But what she doesn't know Jim adds is that a man Is apt to meet other women who dont don't make such a darned fuss about every- every thing hing My agent in a near-by near towns town is s a young war var widow and is just justa a streak of ot sunshine Nothing worries worries wor wor- ries nez herShell herShell herShell her Shell fix a little meal up In the theoffice theoffice theoffice office shell she'll laugh if it anything goes wrong she's sure this'll come out right and that'll all clear up and its it's a pleasure to be with her She's got a boy of five and th the way she handles that little fellow fellows is s a pleasure to see They laugh together together together to to- gether like a couple of kids At home Rose begins nagging when I arrive and doesn't stop matu un un- tu til II I leave the next morning Our girls are only nine and five but already they are beginning to ignore ignore ig ig- Ig- Ig nore fore her criticisms Their clothes I Ir r TL 1 I k t 4 I I If th the cream is curdled I their heir health our financial status the he weather the people she sees nd doesn't want to see and the thenes ones nes she wants to see who dont don't come ome my manners if Im I'm too cordial cordial cor cor- dial my manners if it Im I'm too cool my family's treatment of her when she he was a bride 12 years ago ago ago- theres there's no end to it I If I get in a helper the girl wastes everything and isn't clean If I dont don't get her anyone she's half dead with work And all the time she's capable and hardworking and economical and would die for any anyone one of us the he letter continues But she sure does make life a burden for herself herselt her- her self elf and everyone else Criticizes His nIs Driving Then theres there's my driving She leans cans over from the back seat scat and watches the road like ilke a cat and ond there isn't a chicken or a red light or a truck that she doesn't see way Sway ahead It gets a man nervous The whole thing gets you down S S S This Rose of Jimmys Jimmy's sounds tome to tome tome me like a well too known type There isn't any advice or suggestion tion ion that will reach such a woman She is too entrenched in her own conviction and righteousness Her defense would be that Jimmy Jimmy Jim Jim- my is careless that there are many accidents that someone has bas to watch the family safety and sanIty sanity sanity san san- ity that people would be wasting money and getting sick and spotting spotting spotting spot spot- ting their clothes and leaving lights burning and running into traffic if it she wasn't on guard She would argue that she kept a perfect house never rested day or night had to assume responsibility because because because be be- cause no one else would and altogether altogether altogether al al- al- al together considered herself hersel pretty nearly the perfect wife and mother No you cant can't reach the worriers complainers and naggers with even the gentlest criticism They are perfect letter-perfect and they would laugh at the idea that households need the spirit as well as the letter The letter says the wisest book in hi the world But in the spirit is eternal life lie What might reach Roses Rose's impregnable impregnable impregnable fortress of perfection is the hint of the other woman in Jims Jim's letter The other woman in his branch office in hi a neighboring town The woman who is simple and cheerful and philosophical Grief and change already have struck at this woman She Is one of hundreds who were widowed inthe Inthe in hi hithe the war years She had a child to protect She had her living to make And still she Is happy and sell self reliant and free from the swarms of mosquito cares that beset the themore themore themore more fortunate Rose Jim doesn't sound the kind of man who raises arguments gets into domestic quarrels easily But any man is the sort that just gets deadly deadly tired of constant nagging reI reminders that everything is all wrong Lots of things are worrisome worrisome worrisome wor wor- today But the things that make Rose and so many other women as destructive as termites to the walls of home are not these big world problems No with them it is the weather and that the kiL kithen hen clock stopped and other trivia of that sort to the number of thousands |