The Pace… the Purpose… the Principles

Two essentials for a good and effective life are flexibility and firmness⎯flexibility in some things and an adamant and absolute immovability in others.

Frequently we hear it said that times have changed. Young people say it. Others do also. In some ways it is true. But it is a statement that can be seriously misleading. Many things have changed⎯some for the better, others for the worse. There is much that is new in processing, in packaging, in promotion; in travel, in fashion; in tools and techniques. Almost every outward aspect of life has changed, and anyone who attempts to do business as it was once done would likely not long be in business. The pace of life has changed. We live in a faster and different world, both a worse and a better world, and in some ways we have to adjust to the times and be flexible enough to face the facts.

The pace has changed⎯yes. But not the purpose or the principles. Let no one be deceived about flexibility as to fundamental principles. We cannot afford to be flexible in matters of honesty. We cannot afford to be flexible in matters of virtue, old-fashioned as they word may seem. Flexibility must not mean setting aside considerate manners, or sound morals, or honorable obligations⎯or setting aside the commandments or tampering with the basic laws of life. We must discriminate as to changes and know where it is safe to be flexible and where it is imperative to be firmly fixed. To change the superstructure⎯the facing and the fashions⎯is one thing, but to tamper with the foundations is another.

The pace has changed, but the purpose and principles have not. The age-old, God-given, rules of honesty, morality, responsibility⎯”commandments” if that’s what we want to call them⎯and even the inner voice called conscience, are still what they always were, no matter how times have changed, no matter how modern we feel, no matter how flexible other things may be.