Life Keeps Happening…
July 21, 1963
Life is an endless process of trying, of doing⎯sometimes succeeding, and sometimes facing discouraging setbacks. The pioneers and patriots went through this process with the courage to begin⎯and with the faith in the future. They had their problems. They laid their lives on the line, against the elements, against ignorance and adverse influences, at times against tyranny, with comparatively few comforts and conveniences.
As in the past, so in the present, life does not always move on an unruffled surface for any of us. There are highs and lows, good days and difficult days, and opposition in all things⎯with faith and doubt, encouragement and discouragement, success and failure, daylight and darkness; no man’s life is free from difficulties. Always there are the uncertainties, always the unknown, as we move forward on “the unaudible and noiseless foot of Time,” as Shakespeare said it.
And to those who are disheartened, discouraged, disposed to give up, disposed to retreat from responsibility⎯to all such we would cite some sentences remembered from a play:
“Life keeps happening⎯keeps doing things. No matter how you feel today, you won’t feel the same way next week”⎯and then the question: “Will you try to keep alive until next Tuesday?” To which we might add: Will you try to keep alive until tomorrow⎯or even until eternity? “Life keeps happening.” And for each day there is an endurance equal to what must be endured. “…he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”
Self-respect, faith, peace, and understanding come with doing and enduring⎯and no matter how discouraged you may be today (or any hour or day), look to a time that will seem less so. “Life keeps happening.” Live it with honor and courage and faith for an endless journey, doing the best you can with each day, with each decision.