Life Is What We Make It

Life is What we Make It By Dr. Thomas L. Martin, Dept. Agriculture Brigham Young University IV — Get Away From the Crowd The plant during the day is a bundle of vigorous activity. It is busily engaged gathering to itself carbon-dioxide, water, and mineral foods, and elaborating them into complex com- pounds by aiclj of the sun's energy. It is changing these ordin- ary compounds into compounds of greater complexity and use- fulness. It grows but little during the day, it is too busy getting hold of the things out of which growth is made, and when night comes it goes into solitude. The complex compounds made dur- ing the day are transported to different parts of the plants, and there assimilate and go to make new tissue. It needs the dark- ness, the solitude, for growth. How like the plant is the man that grows. His daily activ- ities are numerous, but to all of them he makes very splendid adjustments, and men call him strong) because of the way he adjusts to his varied problems. Does he do it by chance? No. Every night when he comes home he sits in the dark with eyes closed and wrinkled brows and ponders over the affairs of the day with an effort to find how effectual has been his labors, and how best to plan his work for the morrow. This man may work hard during the day, but this half hour of solitude is the period in which he grows. He literally sets himself against the wall and gives himself a cross-examination. He comes from the experience a bigger man. Christ, when called on his mission, needed the forty days of solitude in the wilderness in order to plan his work. Joseph Smith, though but a young boy, desired to be alone during part of the day for thoughtful purposes. In the midst of this deep thinking solitude he placed his mind and his heart susceptible to the Spirit of the Lord and the impulse came, "pray to the Lord and you will receive your answer." Then was re-born in that solitude the religion of freedom which has done more to enlighten the world and free it of superstition and dread than any other thing since the world began. The Spirit of the Lord is present in the world, ready and willing to help any man who will give it a chance. It will help when the being gets away from the crowd, and plans and thinks over things as they are. Young men whether great or small if they wish to grow.

466 IMPROVEMENT ERA must ask a small period of the day in which to size things up. It is during this period of quietude that the greatest growth is made. One speaker has said: "A man's brain develops; in solitude, yet hustle and crowd and business activity are as nec- essary to the man as sunshine is to the plant. The real brain and moral growth takes place in solitude." Robert Burdette, in a talk to young men, said: "Get away from the crowd for awhile and think. Stand on one side and let the world run by while you get acquainted with yourself, and see what kind of a fellow you are. Ask yourself hard questions about your- self. Ascertain from original sources if you are really the man- ner of man you say you are. Get on intimate terms with your- self, my boy, and believe me, every time you come out of one of those private interviews you will be a stronger, better and purer man. Don't forget this and it will do you good." I am advocating that we arrange everyday to spend one half hour with ourselves in which we will ponder over the af- fairs of the last twenty-four hours. Observe how we have acted, the good we may have done, the places where we have made mistakes; then on the basis of the conclusions, plan our course of action for the next twenty-four hours, and let all our plan- ning be adjusted to the things we want to be. Every day the cry goes out, We want men. The struggling mothers, the starving children, are asking, where is the man who will rectify the conditions that necessitate our starving? Every community is asking for real men; men who have been trained away from selfishness, and have but the welfare of others as the Master thought. Where are they? They must be in the making. Shall we live lives of profit? Shall we grow? Then let us quietly in our secret chambers get acquainted with that Spirit which permeates all space and in that ideal environment plan our affairs so that we may become men and women of service, and thereby lighten the load of our fellowmen. We shall be happier, life will be enriched. It is by far the better life. It is up to us. Life is what we make it. Provo, Utah The "Wandering Dollar" A new idea is the wandering dollar which a number of Chambers of Commerce have taken up. It is to be a moving dollar, traveling through the various channels of commerce at rapid rate. A record is to be kept of its course by each person who receives it. There is an attached slip to the dollar, and each person who uses it signs his or her name and tells what the dollar is spent for and sends it on its way. The purpose of its wander- ing is to emphasize the value of a circulating dollar to the community, and to show how much can be done by keeping the dollar going at home.