SPRING CLEANING

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4231, 15 January 1940, Page 7

SPRING CLEANING

MENTAL RELAXATION. “TAKE YOUR BELIEFS OUT OF THE DRAWER.” The Dutch have a great reputation for cleanliness. They seem to believe the maxim emphasised by Wesley that ‘ Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” In his “Advancement of Learhihg” Bacon says: “Cleanliness of bbdy was ever esteemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.” Visitors to Amsterdam find that there are civic regulations fixing the days on which housewives may beat their carpets. The rules are intended to mihimise the nuisance which might be caused by all the inhabitants in one street carrying out this operation on the same day. In our own cbiihtry we are quite familiar with the domestic upheaval which goes by the name of spring cleaning, when dust and spiders’ webs and all pests are dealt with in summary fashion. Very few of us, however, have stayed to reflect upon certain implications. It has psychological and even theological associations. Why this passion for cleaning and this preference for doing it in the spring? The answer might briefly be made that Nature lias so decreed. The world awakens in spring, and foitliwith proceeds to array itself. Man is part of Nature. Call this pantheism or animism of fetichism, or by any other name you please, we are all part of that system which constitutes the universe.

“Spring goeth all in white,” says a poet; and he points to the milk white may, white daisies, white butterflies, white lambs and fruit blossoms. This combination of beauty and cleanliness seems to challenge civilisation to match it, and summons the housewife to arm herself with broom, bucket and all other appropriate weapons of attack. Beauty is a mystery, a sacrament. It comes from sources deeper than itself, and has a supernatural power which appeals to the universal heart. The consciousness of its presence and urge awakens in Us quite spontaneously and sets us to spring cleaning. There are materialistic and less poetic interpretations, but they are shallow and fail to discriminate between occasion and cause.

Spring cleaning is needed in other spheres than the buildings in which we live. One of these is the human mind. Would it be an exaggeration to affirm that there are men who have never once had their minds spring cleaned? Some of them may be keen on bodily baths, yet never stay to reflect that the mind also requires cleansing. The Greek teacher maintained that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” It wbuld be interesting to know how many of us examine the contents of our mind and set ourselves to dust and polish our thoughts and ideas. We have never taken our beliefs out of the drawer, looked them over and reassessed them. We inherited some of them, drank them in with our mother’s milk, accepted them without question, but never once set ourselves to justify them at the bar of reason. We have apparently forgotten that we are commanded to love God not only with all the heart .and soul, but also With all the mind. It frequently happens that when a man begins to spring clean his beliefs he finds himself considerably perturbed. The evidence in their favour is not as conclusive as he had imagined. Like multitudes of others, he had anticipated such a mass of proof as would make unbelief impossible. If great beliefs are correct, why is not their truth as self-evident as the multiplication table? His very alarm at this point proves that his spring cleaning has been too long delayed and his education sadly defective. Learning is sometimes largely unlearning. This does not mean that his early beliefs were necessarily wrong, but merely that he had not examined their foundations. The youth who abandons the orthodox faith because it cannot be mathematically demonstrated needs to have his mind spring cleaned. The manly thing is to fight one’s doubts, and through the struggle reach to truth. Browning is a wise teacher: “When the fight begins within himself, a man’s worth something.” At the present moment there is need for a spring cleaning in the minds of some national leaders. There is such a thing as a wholesome introspection. Party politicians would do well to examine themselves as to their motives, sincerity and integrity. The Germans have urgent need of a new Anschauung, as they call it, a new world view. At the moment they have no proper international outlook, no sympathy with the aspirations of weaker nations, no willingness to admit that other peoples have the right to liberty and justice, no recognition of the natural rights of other races to live their own life and judge what is best for themselves.

Every nation claims self-determina-tion, but Hitler refuses recognition of any such principle. He is obsessed with the idea that only German kultur can save the world; but what if the world thinks the very opposite? At the close of the Great War the Germans said they could not fight the whole world, but not even yet do they seem to have ashed what made the whole world rise against Germany. The answer to that question involves spring cleaning which is not likely to

be entered upon by the leaders of that nation. The result is that the Allied forces are at this moment engaged in the task of spring cleaning—that is, of teaching Germany that her attempt at dominating Europe, were it successful, means the end of civilisation as civilised nations understand that term. Its two components are liberty and justice. The idea that the reign of force can secure the highest interests of man is blatantly selfcontradictory. The kindred idea that nationalism is superior to international friendship does not reflect credit on those who maintain it. The business of spring cleaning the Nazi mind is costly but unavoidable. Germany should have done it herself, but left it to men like Hitler. The Allies had no alternative but to undertake it.

DOUBLE TROUBLE I I When an American pastor was informed that his salary had been increased by 200 dollars by his congregation, he replied: “I refuse to accept it; I’ve cnou;*h trouble already, trying to collect my present salary.” AHEM! “Father, I need a new riding Habit.”' “Can’t afford it.” “But, father, what am I to do without a riding habit?” “Get the walking habit.” I Te Awamutu Courier publishes 12 pages, including the special Kawhla 1 supplement, each Wednesday.