A HAPPY INVALID

Evening Star, Issue 20322, 2 November 1929, Page 20

A HAPPY INVALID

A SECRET REVEALED ‘"There is no disputing the fact that numbers of men and women carrying burn dens of never to be laid down on this side of ‘the grave, are Intensely happy, incomprehensible as this may be to the person in normal circumstances, who is often intensely miserable,” says Mr Leonard B. Smith, in a contribution, '* written from an invalid’s chair,” to the‘Daily Chronicle.’ t- “ Undoubtedly the secret of happiness is achievement—conquest. When a man has finished digging his garden he is happy for a time. The author is happy when he has written the concluding sentences of his book; the business man when he haa negotiated a successful deal, and the sportsman when he has created a fresh record. There is no happiness without achievement, and no achievement without conquest Then where lies the ojiportunity for the man stretched in spinal carriage, or for him who must grope his way through continual night? It may be that the sole task allowed him is the conquest of self—the struggle to rise above the affliction which is ever striving to render him irritable and morose. It is a task calling for all his mettle, and the reward of victory is the happiness at which other# may well wonder. Achievement is essential; and many a sufferer has built up a spirit so mdomitahle that he has found an occupation within the scope of hia limitations. Such, a triumph must bring intense happiness seeing that he has, of his own determination and perseverance, converted uselessness into usefulness. Some of the world’s greatest work has been don© by such as these.”-