LIVING AT HOME

Evening Star, Issue 20150, 15 April 1929, Page 9

LIVING AT HOME

A DIFFICULT ART IBFIUEHGE OF RELATIVES One of the great London stores turned its furniture department tor a few weeks into a mini hoi; of model bouses and placed in prominent positions placards hearing the inscription, “The art of living is the art of living at home.' Jl this was not n quotation from some tanions author it must have been a happy idea, not falling far short of an inspired nlterance, that sprang up in the mind id a member of the staff, showing him in be a man who knew human nature through and through. “ It is because wc take it for granted that life at home is as natural as breathing that so many people make a, hopeless failure of it and turn what should be a paradise into a purgatory. They make no effort to get at the secret of the whole matter, and render it difficult by treating it as easy.” says “ W.C.8.,” in the ‘ Birmingham Post.’ “ Here comes in the philosophy of the emporium manager. Wc must pay proper attention to our surroundings it wc arc to make a success of Hie. Homo must be made so comfortable and attractive that we shall want to spend as much time in it ns possible. Environment acts upon everyone, and wc cannot afford to dispense with care in providing it. “ The choice of suitable furniture and skill in arranging it go a long way to create a feeling of rcstlnlnoss, and to make a man at home in Ids home. But even a man of business, whoso primary object is to sell furniture, would admit that lie could only give a strictly limited assistance to those who want to know how to make Home happy. ‘‘d’h© finalities that arc needed are moral; tlie furniture may help to develop them or keep them from decaying, but it cannot be a substitute tor thorn. We can bay our material environment; we create that immaterial environment which gives a, character, an odour, and a charm to the house in which wo live, and wc create it by what wc are.

“We may be experts in .selecting the contents of our rooms and lonning colour schemes to match them, but this will avail us little if wo know nothing of the far more difficult art of bringing ourselves into harmony with those who share tho house with ns.

“Our companions are not, like our chairs, our pictures, and our book'.?, so many modes in which we express ourselves; they are points of contact with our personality, and each of them may possibly represent ideas and tastes entirely at variance with nnr own. It is easy to live peaceably with those whom we choose because wc find ourselves at home with them; it is not so easy to create peace among those who are thrust upon us. “We can understand why people say that relatives are host apart, especially if they mean (though as a rule they do not mean it) that relatives arc at their host when they arc not together. Vet, if home is to fulfil its proper function, and ho as beautiful in reality as it is in poetry, wo must not permit ourselves to surrender to difficulties; we must taco the task of being at <mr best when we are living with these to whom wo naturally belong. JOY AND DISCIPLINE.

“ Ideally home life is a joy; actually it is a discipline. One of tho greatest mysteries of existence is the difference in temperament and taste that we see in members of the .same family. But the mystery creates an obligation and offers an opportunity. “It is only by self-sacrifice and kindly forbearance that life at tin me can be harmonious and healthy. It is here that the greatest demand is made upon us; it is here that wo have the widest scope for showing our power of self-repression and practising tho art of living.”