Swiftly, Silently, Certainly January 10, 1954
Beyond the Barrier… January 17, 1954
We read of speeds that move men beyond the so-called “sonic barrier,” and of the forces and feelings encountered when super-powered planes physically fight their way through the...
On the Fringe January 24, 1954
In thumbing through some commonplace words we find the word “fringe“and we find it thus in part defined as “an ornamental border…” or “something resembling a...
From Where We Are January 31, 1954
Winter and another year is with us. But sooner than we suppose it will be spring. More suddenly and sooner than we suppose, it will be summer. And soon again the summer will have passed, and soon...
Sitting This One Out… February 7, 1954
Sometimes too much of what we do⎯or think we do⎯is in the nature of simply sitting and seeing someone else do something. It is good to watch, to listen, to appreciate as others perform, but it is...
Throwing Away Experience February 14, 1954
IN THE pungent phrasing of Benjamin Franklin: “Experience is a dear school, but a fool can learn in no other.” These words suggest two ways by which we learn the lessons of life: by our...
If Washington Were Here… February 21, 1954
On the surface it might seem that we today have few of the problems of Valley Forge, and that they had few, if any, of ours. But the principles and the problems that pertain to people basically are...
The Sound Is Silenced… February 28, 1954
Sometimes there are sounds which at first we are only vaguely aware of, intrusive, insistent sounds that are all around us, but which don’t quite break through to our full consciousness,...
The Duty of Being Happy March 7, 1954
“There is no duty,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, “we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” We think of happiness as being deeply desirable but seldom perhaps think...
The Spirit of "Getting By"… March 14, 1954
There is a spirit that blights and shrivels the human soul whenever it remains unchallenged and unchecked. For want of better words, perhaps it could be called “the spirit of getting by”...
A Favor for Ourselves April 4, 1954
We often see the familiar picture of parents and teachers pleading with young people to improve themselves, to learn their lessons, to make the most of their lives. And because of this sincere...
The Root and the Tree April 11, 1954
Frequently we see people come to a place of prominence or pre-eminence in some particular profession. But what we frequently fail to see is the groundwork, the long growth, the prolonged preparation...
To See the Human Soul Take Wing April 18, 1954
In The Prisoner of Chillon, Lord Byron said in the awesome words of a classic couplet: Oh, God! it is a fearful thing To see the human soul take wing.¹ Fearful, yes–but just so surely as our loved...
A Matter of Semantics… April 25, 1954
Perhaps it has always been so; certainly during our day it seems increasingly to have been so: that custom and connotation have changed the meaning of words, and that men have found new ways for...
Mark the End… May 2, 1954
There are times and moments in life when people seem to have arrived at what they want—when the plans and purposes they have pursued seem to have been successful. But this we learn, sooner or later:...
A Woman Set Apart… May 9, 1954
In one account of the courtship of Elizabeth Barrett she replied to the poet Robert Browning, that she should not marry because of her physical frailty; that if she should, as she poignantly put it,...
On Seeing Things Through May 16, 1954
One of the indispensable elements of a sincerely successful life is the ability, the power, the capacity and the willingness to see things through⎯to carry things beyond conversation to conclusion....
The Coming of Commencement… May 23, 1954
The coming of each commencement calls to mind the passing of another year so swiftly and so soon and suggests once more to all of us that we ought to start early to do what we ought to be doing. A...
Remembrance… May 30, 1954
Remembrance is a mark of a thoughtful, grateful man⎯but sometimes it is acute and cutting, as suggested by Shakespeare: “How sharp the point of this remembrance is!” he said. Remembrance...
Beginning Together June 6, 1954
Often young married people who are beginning together become discouraged because they can’t begin where their parents “left off.” There are many things they want, and working and...