Concerning Inner Resources…

Because so much is done for so many of us, both by men and machines, because we have become accustomed to so much service, the use of hands and feet, and even of minds, has, in many instances, been minimized. And often in the boredom of any hour, or in any moment of inactivity, young people — and others also — will ask: Where can we go? What is there to do? — as if every waking moment should be filled with some excitement, or as if we had come to expect to be entertained continually. What many of us need to learn in life is the self-resourcefulness that is nor primarily dependent upon the efforts of others — an inner initiative for the filling of free time. “…men should… do many things of their own free will,”¹ we quote again. And among the many things to do, there is much to be said for thinking, there is much to be said for walking, for working, for practising, for making, for mending, for reading, for learning, for becoming acquainted in literature, in music, in art, in scripture, with the heritage we have. There is much to be said for keeping life balanced, for feeding mind and heart and spirit, for feeding all sides ourselves. John Woolman, in his Journal of some two centuries ago, included these questions: “Do I use food and drink in no other sort and in no other degree than was designed by Him who gave these [things] for our sustenance? Do I never abuse my body by inordinate labor, striving to accomplish some end which I have unwisely proposed? Do I use action enough in some useful employ, or do I sit too much idle while some persons who labor to support me have too great a share of it? If in any of these things I am deficient, to be incited to consider it is a favor to me.”² It is a favor to be incited to consider the balance of things, the value of things, and the resources we have within ourselves. These lines Ruskin wrote: “If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it. Toil is the law. Pleasure comes through toil, and not by self-indulgence and indolence. When one gets to love work, his life is a happy one.”³ What is there to do now? Where is there to go next? There is much to be said for working, for walking, for thinking, for learning, for deciding, for doing many things for ourselves, avoiding the emptiness, the feelings of frustration that come when we fail to fill time fruitfully.