ON KEEPING YOUR BALANCE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 198, 4 August 1928, Page 15

ON KEEPING YOUR BALANCE

VOU don’t remember anything - 1 - about it now, but one of the greatest things ever you did in your life was to walk the five yards from the kitchen table to the chair by the fire-place all by yourself. The admiring parents who watched you had their eyes alight with pride, and came to the unanimous conclusion that you were the cleverest thing that had ever happened. Previously, your feet had been as often in your mouth aS anywhere, but on the great day of achievement you arose to take your place in the ranks of the only kind of four-limbed animals who can keep erect on two limbs without losing balance. I know, of course, that you may sometimes see a dog standing on his hind legs; but the point is that the dog doesn’t make a habit of it, just as you can occasionally go down on all fours to play at horses, without any intention of staying in that position for keeps. First time you tried it, walking was very difficult, but once you had tumbled to the trick of it—and maybe after a few tumbles on the floor—you found that you could do it easily without thinking about it at all. But apart from walking there is a sense in which it is still difficult to keep your balance. There are so many illbalanced people about that a few simple rules on the subject may be acceptable. One of the things that will help you is a level head. All the best things in the world are done by the people who keep their heads when all around are losing theirs. Tight-rope walkers could never put up their wonderful performances if they did not possess cool heads; and in a bigger way it is true that you will keep your balance if you keep keep your head. Another good idea is to keep your eye on where you are going. In the Army, when men are being taught to shoot, thev are told not only to keep the rifle sights level, so that they lean neither this way nor that way. but to keep their eye on the mark. And at school, when you wish to draw a straight hue without

a ruler, what do you do? Suppose you hare to join two corners of a square. You put your pencil on one corner, glue your eye on the other, and go for it. When you are climbing a difficult hillside, you will lose your head and probably your balance if you look down. If you keep on looking up, the chances are that you will make the summit easily. In other words, what’s (he use of moping about past failures? Keep on looking forward. Tell yourself that to-day is going tq be the best day yet, just as a golfer always tells himself that his next shot is going to be the shot of his life. Something to carry is another help towards keeping your balance. Some fishermen were loading heavy stones into their little boat before they put to sea. A passer-by, on holiday, wondered why they were doing it. “Why load up with such an extra weight,” he asked, “when you could more easily pull your boat along without it?” He was told of course, that the stones were ballast, to keep the boat steady in the waves. I don’t know how it is now, but it used to be the case that one person never piloted an aeroplane seated for two without putting in sandbags to take the place of the second person. You see the idea. Ships have heavy keels on them, so that they can stay balanced. Many a time vou get certain things to do which you regard as a frightful nuisance, and as mere unnecessary burdens But don’t forget that it is nearly always the idle fellow, without that kind of ballast, who loses his balance. “Keep moving” is a good motto for keeping you straight. , You can’t stand still on a bicycle. Yet it runs straight if it is kept moving. You can't stand a sixpence on edge in many nlaces. but it will keep balanced for quite a while if you roll it along. If vou stand on the narrow plank that spans the stream, you may fall over. But if you make a run for it, you will get to the other side in safety. So never mind standing still to wonder what is going to happen to you. Get a move on and keep going, and you will find it much easier to earn a reputation as a well-balanced and dependable youngster.