Show kathleen norris says politics cures loneliness 1311 autu 4 r A V L 11 J LJ there find spectacled women women with bulbous noses smart and stupid women fat and comet thin dowdy ady and stylish by KATHLEEN NORRIS is 31 she is alone in SHE the world living in a one room apartment in a big city she is plain her nose she says is inclined to look shiny and bulbous she wears glasses and her color is too high in winter win when her hands and feet get cold and her face hot she has few friends because most of her friends have married and gone away from the business world into homemaking home making wifehood and motherhood gertrude white feels herself a failure she Is very unhappy sh she he went to a psychoanalyst but all lie told her in seven sess sessions I 1 ons w was as t to 0 try to forget a lonely and handicapped childhood and a self dicing youth and assert herself and her potential of happiness and success 1 I like men tut but am horribly s thy by and sett self conscious when in their company I 1 try to think ot of subjects interesting to them but succeed only in making such such artificial remarks that my purpose Is perfectly obvious and they either answer briefly or wander away to some im other woman you dont know gertrudes letter continues how I 1 envy women luckier than I 1 in the way they seem to know how to live their simplest achievements seem miraculous to me having men buzz about them at dances receiving invitations attentions otters offers of marriage going through all the steps of engagement and marriage and then proudly taking their places in the social group as wives and mothers I 1 dont know how to get started I 1 know I 1 could be loving and capable if I 1 had a chance ive never had bad a chance cant make blake friends please dont tell me she finishes to show men simple friendliness and interest and forget myself in trying to win their friendship just what I 1 dot do please dont tell me to enlarge my interests and join a class ot of some kind because I 1 did with the hope that it would bring new contacts into my life the only friends I 1 made to in a i spanish class were an old man and his wife who v ho stuck to me so that everyone thought them my father and mother and even they never asked kd roe me to their homel home 1 I want terribly to find myself I 1 dont want to die 30 years from now never having lived all ali right gertrude I 1 will not make you the usual suggestions ot of charity work in some hospital or community house or study in some night class I 1 will ask you to do two things the last woman to whom I 1 gave this recipe was in a bad way indeed she had gone do down to the lowest depth a woman can ridden by physical disease and a consuming hunger for drugs she staggered into my life ike 10 years ago now the she lives in texas raises shetland ponies and has a good husband she Is a happy successful woman my suggestion to inez was this same one to go into a church every day tit sit thinking for a while and then kneel to say only the brief 11 prayer j CREATE A NEW HEART IN ME 0 GOD this prayer never f she is very unhappy PRAYER HELPS although many hooks books have been written on the subject very few people enjoy living alone by nature men and women are gregarious they thrive on their associations with other people families children and a fruitful rewarding home life gertrude white is 31 unmarried lonely and feels that she is an utter failure because she has been unable to share in the happiness of a marriage miss N 0 orris r r i s advocates that gertrude appeal to god for help through humble sincere prayer she herself lier self must not remain dormant but bitt should attend political meetings where the furor of debate will cause her to forget her shyness I 1 goes unanswered my further advice to you is that you get interested in politics we need women in politics they have their faults but they are different from the mens faults and make tor for refreshing changes attend political meetings go to political meetings not the important ones but the little insignificant ones of which there are 10 notices in your newspaper this very day go into unfamiliar neighborhoods talk to the intense men and women nearest you be much too interested in the program to pay much attention to you personally but love to tell you what its all about the rougher the plainer and grimier gridier the meeting the more youre apt to find yourself taking sides forget your shyness and loneliness and presently find yourself swept along to harrys or johnnies tor for coffee and sinkers still talking there is nothing in the world more st stimulating im in g the day you stand up and ana hear your year own voice saying aloud 1 I entirely disagree with the last r speaker 11 you yon will realize that tile the lord really has heard beard your prayer praye a and c created a new heart in you yon inasmuch as you have the advantage of a line fine education and have been a teacher you may be nominated as spokesman or delegate to other ether meetings and find yourself in a way you never dreamed possible look at the women at these meetings the women at parent teacher meetings and the women flocking out of church on sunday morning there find spectacled women women with bulbous noses smart and stupid women fat at and thin dowdy and stylish all successfully married and many the mothers of children they do it on their looks they gained what they have gained because they realized from their very girlhood days that men are like women too thin fat stupid smart a shy by inhibited lonely and that most of them want to find mates but since the start is so hard bard tor for you in your own group go to some good rowdy meetings where everyone talks to everyone else and breaks the ice good luck to youl |