Some Attitudes and Opportunities of Age

Among the most wasteful of all the wastes of the world is the waste of time, of thought, of human effort and energy, of talents and creative gifts and productive powers. The world needs more of most good things than all men can make, both of substance and of services. Its real needs are never really satisfied. Not all the children are ever taught. Not all the sick are ever cared for. Not all the unfortunate and needy are ever included in adequate opportunities.

Not all those in confusion or in sorrow are ever fully counseled and comforted. Furthermore there is always room for more of everything uplifting⎯great literature, art, music, beauty of the living, creative, wholesome kind. And for anyone arbitrarily to cut off his period of productivity is a waste, a loss, that cannot be calculated, but for which somehow, somewhere there must surely be an accounting. Indeed He who gave us life has not that we know of, established any point at which we should cease well to use our time and talents.

Now with this as a preface, may we cite some lines from several sources: George Bernard Shaw said: “I want to be thoroughly used before I die, and I want to die gloriously solvent, intellectually, morally, and financially.” “. . . Initiative and effort must be made . . . to maintain . . . health.” “. . .Let each man proportion his efforts to his powers.”⁵³ “Whilst I yet live,” said Addison, “let me not live in vain.” There is no wealth but life,”¹⁶¹ said John Ruskin. And since this is so, it would not be well to waste it at any age.

But men need to know that they are needed⎯that they have some responsibility, that someone is counting on them, that there is something essential or significant that demands their getting up and getting going⎯that demands their exerting themselves, that demands the meaningful use of time and effort and energy. Any or all of us would likely let down without some challenging activity, without some significant assignment, and always we ought somehow to be able to organize ourselves to use our God-given powers⎯at whatever age. “Life is not a goblet to be drained; it is a measure to be filled.”