Show kathleen norris says women get busy america needs you bell syndicate service r I 1 zoil 0 I 1 0 aw e 0 4 a 0 0 0 0 harold my husband was divorced and no his daughter was eight years old ichen when I 1 met him ile he is fifty now and takes her to dances and night clubs they come in in lore late and I 1 hear them laughing in the pantry with her boy friends by KATHLEEN NORRIS THE HE answer to fully two thirds thirds of the problems women submit to me in these these days will be the same it will be get busy america needs you forget your pet petty ty worries and trials forget slights and suspicions and personal disappointments and give your entire life to prayer and service we have to do that now if we dont we may lose the essential thing that has made us america and our world a f free ree world we stand in serious danger there is no room any more for trifles things that seemed actually to wreck your life yesterday things over which you brooded blooded through restless nights and cried through empty days must be put aside meet domestic changes heroically not with martyred marty red resignation and reluctant philosophy but courageously with imagination and humor As expensive foods rise right out of sight learn to substitute others and make them appetizing and nourishing after all the chief ingredient of any meal is love people may call it a home table or mothers cooking but it is love anyone can tell from the taste of a meal whether the cook liked her job or not every country except our own has its cheap filler of rice potatoes macaroni oatmeal oat meals cornmeal with such luxuries as meat shellfish cream roast goose cake for the occasional cas ional treat we will not have to go as far as caesars caesara Cae sars soldiers who traveled on a pocketful of raw grain or the galley slaves who were doled out six bananas a day or the chinese who can eat a bowl of steaming rice for a hundred meals in succession and find it still sufficient fici ent but we will have to go part way why my answer to isabelles letter is perhaps a trifle less sympathetic than it might have been a few years ago isabelle writes me in part 1 I am 32 married to a man over ten years my senior harold was divorced when I 1 met him his wife had the custody of a daughter of eight after our first two cloudlessly happy years together his first wife remarried and sent us the child a spoiled difficult unfriendly delicate little creature who needed infinite care linda was then 12 had special training 1 I had had special training in the care of children in a psychology course and I 1 did my best for linda and she loved me week after week year after year I 1 gui guided ded and helped her I 1 have no child of my own two years ago she went east to a girls college returning this autumn to be with u us she is now a lovely girl of 18 her father is completely devoted to her she adores him and they leave me out of their calculations entirely recently harold suggested kindly enough that I 1 visit my sister who has a large family of small children in a neighboring town while he and linda take a little nier flier in new york I 1 have never been to new york I 1 went to stay with mary doing dishes and didies for or seven weeks until harold and linda came back A WOMANS ArPS WORLD we cannot all be called at once for war tear services and tee ice may not all be able to do what we tee avant to we tre are called but there is something every woman in america can do now and continue doing throughout the months or years we tee are at tear ivar she can make her home a place of comfort and courage she can manage to cook economical foods and sew inexpensive clothes with a limited number of materials and enjoy it women no longer need to feel that their only place is ts in in the home and they must make the best of it many hany women are already active in volunteer organizations and in defense industries but those who remain at home for the duration need not feel left out of it for the home remains as much as ever a noman acoman s world harold just 50 takes her to dances and night clubs they come in late and I 1 hear them laughing with her boy friends in the pantry we have a fine colored general maid whom I 1 have trained to do practically everything downstairs this leaves me a healthy woman of less than 40 with practically nothing to do I 1 am neither needed nor wanted lindas mother is dead the girl has an inco income me of her own there is nothing I 1 can do for her will you please help me to find my place again in my own estimation for I 1 feel completely at a loss trouble seems imaginary this would seem an almost purely imaginary trouble isabelle to nine tenths of the women in the world today and you must try to see it now in a different perspective what other persons can do to us is always of our own choosing if we choose to rise above slight and stupidity and to find our own avenues of work and service there is nothing that a dancing husband or unappreciative daughter can do to hurt us youth will go on dancing for dancing jr is wholesome and amusing and innocent but youngsters are dancing with tears in their eyes change separation suffering are ahead of them and although they may win through and they WILL win through to a better saner more moderate world the next half dozen years are not going to be a time when a safe and secure woman of 32 with no child of her own over whom to agonize need grudge a girl of 18 anything 9 As for your husband he is being selfish and silly snatching in a panic at the last glow of youth but he has company most men go through this phase linda will fall in love with a soldier who will either march away leaving her desolate or who will marry her first and perhaps come stumbling back to be her beloved care and responsibility for the rest of her life she will stop dancing and harold will stop dancing and both will turn to you to you who keep the home so comfortable who are so sympathetic and capable their rock ot of comfort colfo rt in a shaking world |