Reason to Respect Ourselves…

“The best way to study human nature,” said Tom Masson, “is when nobody else is present.”¹

We often ask why other men don’t do better than they do; why others don’t do something about whatever is wrong. And yet, honestly searching ourselves with help us know why others are as they are, We have each one within us, ambitions, ideals, hopes, along with human weaknesses; we all have our failures in performance; sometimes unkindness, not doing always as well as we should or could. To cite a whimsical sentence: “Folk should always be sincere,” it says, “whether they mean it or not!”²

Men are an intermixture of the human and divine, with the good struggling always with temptation and enticement—sometimes conquering, sometimes giving around, often rationalizing, often expecting more of others than we expect of ourselves; often criticizing the mistakes of others while excusing our own—and yet, not always so, for there is also an earnest urge and effort in each of us to do and to be better. And the greatest conquest is the conquest closest to us, the conquest of ourselves—and the greatest compliment is to have reason to respect ourselves, and to have the respect of those who know us best—those who love and live us. “Search thine own heart,” said John Greenleaf Whittirer, “What paineth thee in others in thyself may be. All dust in frail, all flesh is weak. Be thou that true man thiu dost seek.”³ “The best way to study human nature is when nobody else I present.”