Treason In Pessimism

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 20 June 1931, Page 16

Treason In Pessimism

N these days every man needs all his 1 wits and a little more. He needs to JL live on it higher plane of interest and enthusiasm. He needs clearer eyes, sharper ears. He cannot have these advantages unless he puts gloom out of his heart,’ writes the Medical Correspondent of the “Times Trading and Engineering Supplement.” “Joy is the only certain antidote to this poison. There are men who can wear a jsmilc in the face of ruin. These men do not get ruined. The tonic effect of their habit of looking on the bright side of things is such that opportunities arc percieved where other men see only darkness. When this happens we hear of ‘miracles’ and ‘wizards.’ “It is a fact that most of the ‘wizards’ of commorcen and industry arc happy men. They are not happy because they have succeeded; they have succeeded because they are happy. “Admittedly it is not easy to keep smiling. The happy disposition like the disposition to work, is not, as a rule, a gift of Providence ('though that is always said about it by unhappy folk'll ft comes by care and effort. When a man has convinced himself that it is a hlundei

They Succeed Who Are Happy

as well as a sin to give way to pessimism he is on the high road to happiness. “lie can help himself in various ways. The most important of these is the cultivation of the power of shutting the mind. Dismal people carry their troubles home with them. They nurse them in and out of season. Happy men refuse trouble the freedom of their homes. “They shut out from their minds the difficulties which their work imposes on them so soon as they have finished with that work. The man who, in a crisis, can enjoy a good book or a good play or good music is on the high road to success. He is happy; he is independent; he possess his own soul. “ And the odds are that he will surmount his difficulty. For he will come back J o it with strong nerves and quickened senses. He will see it whole. lie will see it in its true proportions. “For pessimism is an act of treason to oneself. He who, in the storm, takes his hand from the tiller deserves the fate which always overtakes him. If we must go down, let ns go down smiling. It is a curious fact, however, that the proverbial expression is not ‘go down smiling,’ but ‘come up smiling.’ ”