The Worst That Could Happen

For our present purpose, suppose we presume that the worst we fear were actually going to happen. Suppose that civilization were surely doomed. Suppose that all men and all moral and material values were going to be wiped off the earth. Suppose that all these fearful suppositions were true! Even if they were, what could we possibly lose by building for the future? And what could we gain by giving up in dark despondency? Let’s put it another way: Suppose that a man had been told he had only a year to live. Would he be smart to live as if he were already dead—and so lose the year he might have had and maybe much more? Or would he be smart to live as if he were very much alive? Now mind you, it is not to be conceded that the uncertainties we fear will certainly be fall us. But suppose they would. Suppose all this were true. Yet wouldn’t we be better off by living as if life were going on, rather than by living as if all were over? Perhaps no man who has seen much of life has escaped his days of deep despondency. Despondency is one of the most dangerous of diseases, and it isn’t always easy to lift ourselves out of it. But even if the worst were true, what could we gain by living as if there weren’t going to be a future? And what could we lose by living as if there were? Life without faith in the future would be all but meaningless. There has always been a future—and there are providential purposes that prevail, despite the foolishness of men and the forces they set in motion. Anyone who has any regard for his own future and for the future of his family will fight against the false feeling that there isn’t going to be a future worth living for or worth working for.