OBSERVATIONS

Northern Advocate, 30 July 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

OBSERVATIONS

A LITTLE lad of my acquaintance, disappointed at not' being taken to Tutukaka for his summer vacation, was told by his father not to worry because he could rely upon going there during the next Christmas holidays. This promise did not seem to give the little chap a great deal of comfort. “Next Christmas!” he echoed, “but that is a terribly long time to waft.” A year a terribly long time! Happy youth, for whom time moves slowly. What would those who have left the days of childhood long behind them give if they could recapture the spirit which gave full measure to the passage of time! JT is a commonplace of conversation among elderly people, and, indeed, among people who are no longer young, that as the years pass, time seems to go more quickly. It has well been said, fn this respect, that the increasing rate at which time passes as the years go by may be likened to the way in which a stone thrown from the summit of a mountain gathers momentum as it approaches the bottom. rjpO reflect upon this fact is not very cheering when one who is growing old has health and strength, and fs in full possession of all the faculties, and when life has brought wealth. To know that one is rushing along the straight, with the great finishing post coming towards him at a tremendous rate, gives a certain amount of irony to the greetings extended by companions as birthday succeeds birthday. Yet it is comforting to know that one has friends sufficiently interested to wish one well. But would that the end were not so near! jt is quite another matter when the infirmities of age bow the body and the mind beneath an ever-increas-ing load. Then, it may be, time does not pass quickly enough, and the finishing post seems to be like unto a mirage which keeps ever at a distance from the traveller.

But, if all that is told of the very old be true, nature comes with the soothing balm of forgetfulness or indifference to the passage of time, so that a slay is but as a year, and a year as a day. JT is interesting to ruminate upon this subject of the passage of time, which assumes so widely different an outlook in the case of the young and of the old. The small boy who cannot contemplate with comfort the terribly long period of time represented by a year is to be envied by the busy and healthy man who is at the opposite end of life’s race and who realises that there is so little time left in which to do all that he would like to do. No matter how busy or successful a man has been, there always comes the reflection, “So much to do, so little done.” ,rj\HAT, it seems to me, constitutes the, .greatest tragedy of life when surveyed as the years are racing by at ever greater speed. Yet it never seems to be realised that so long as there is even a brief period of time left a very great deal may be done to make up for past neglect of opportunities and waste of time. fjpHIS reminds me that it is the desire or intention to do something big or spectacular which prevents most people from doing anything that is worth while. As James Russell Lowell wrote, in the form of a verse for an autograph book, “We cry, when thinking about what we take in hand, ‘Lo, time and space enough to write an epic.’ So we try our nibs upon the edge and die.” rpHAT is very true. We feel that we must : not start a task until we have time to do something, really big. Meantime the years are hastening on, and we discover that if we are to do anything at all, it can be no more than write our name. And a name with nothing to back it in the shape of a

By “THE MAN ON THE LOOK-OUT"

record of good deeds is of no value at all. after all, constitutes a wellspent or a successful life? I happened recently to spend an evening among a number of mutual friends, who, after partaking of the good things provided in a generous menu, adjourned to a room where a large' fire blazed cheerfully. Conversation took various courses, and finally, the members of the company constituted themselves a self-confessing company. Each in turn gave the story of his life, or, at any rate, as much of the story as a man might reasonably be expected to give, I was particularly interested to note the different interpretations which were put upon the term “successful life.” None of the men was really old, but it was obvious to me, even if it was not to the speakers, that some were definitely facing the sunset, What, then. ..had they to justify their claim to having achieved success in life? What, after all, does constitute success? gOME spoke with obvious pride of big business built up as the result of long years of hard work. In the language of a one-time popular play, it seemed to be a case of “My work, all my work, and alone I did it.” Did this belief in self-made success really give satisfaction to the speaker? And did he really believe that he had achieved success? QTHERS spoke of the building up of a family of boys and girls who were doing well, and who would take up the reins when the speaker laid them down. And so on. What was the value of it all to - the different speakers? I would like to know. But of one thing I am certain: the men who found consolation in the fact that they had achieved success envied the little boy who complained that time passed too slowly.