--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Morrill, Alice collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 29 number: 1 published: 1925-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Morrill, Alice, “The Bright Things of Life,” *Improvement Era* 29, no. 1 (November 1925): 50–51." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2901unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2901unse start_page: 50 end_page: 51 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1925-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2901unse publication_year: 1925 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1925, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Bright Things of Life THE BRIGHT THINGS OF LIFE BY Alice Morrill. I was going along — just sauntering down a meandering path which led through the outskirts of a country village. It was early morning, and the blue, blue sky just seemed to smile its beneficence down upon a waking world, while the grass and flowers and creeping things looked up to greet the fresh young day. My heart was full of the joy of living. I had forgotten that I was growing old or that youth and gladness ever waned. I was thrilled with the beauty of earth and the glory of life. Looking forward, I saw a man coming up the path toward me. I recognized him as being an old acquaintance. On account of not living in close proximity we did not often meet, and the thought of exchanging greetings with an old friend, now, as always, added to my pleasure. I extended my hand as we met and was opening my mouth ( and soul) to greet him when he remarked, "Good Morning, Mrs. Gray, My, but you're beginning to look old!" That was his greeting — just that — and nothing more. And yet, he was a well meaning man, as the saying goes, and are we not all "well meaning?" But are we all "well doing" when it comes to "brightening the corner where you are?" Do we not talk oftener of the unpleasant and the distressing things of life than of the pleasant and beautiful things which surround us? And yet how few really unpleasant or distressing phenomena there are in life, if we "simmer things down" to their component elements, or view them in the light of their ultimate results. How fine it is to meet those who radiate cheer and happiness and encouragement, whose "spirit's touch" inspires you to be your better self — to do your best — whose attitude toward life is optimistic! These are they who view life as simply a segment or part of the great eternity of time, and the whole world functioning as one bright unit in a glorious universe, where there is no death nor decay. That which seems such is only life renewed and perfected. And how much life really holds of the glorious and beautiful — glory and beauty that result in pleasantness and joygiving; the caress of Spring, the ever changing panorama of the sky, the argosies of drifting clouds, the beaming eyes of a street urchin, the clinging softness of a baby's arms, the metamorphosis of a creeping thing, the life history of a grain of soil, the loyalty of your faithful hound; undying faith shining in the countenance of an aged, white-haired man, a sun- flower beside a dusty road, a patient smile on the face of pain, a neighborly, kindly deed, the smokestack of a great manufacturing THE BRIGHT THINGS OF LIFE 5 1 plant, the ripple of the meadow brook, the stars of night, and the sun- king of the noon-day sky! Oh, there is much to enjoy, much to make the heart glad, and to fill the soul with praise and love for that Great Being, the Author of it all. Tridell, Utah. TOBACCO AND "RED HOT" REFORMERS By Will H. Brown. The San Francisco Examiner, in an editorial on "Children," says: "The look in a child's eyes is quite the loveliest look possible to human-kind. If every-one thought about some child every day for half an hour, and looked ahead over the years in which that child would be growing up, this world would be full of red-hot, yet sensible reformers. People who thought much about children would simply and promptly take adult life to pieces and make it over as perfect as possible, so that the beauty and the healthiness which are the qualities of childhood might never be tarnished by disillusion or needless pain." True words. And yet because friends of children have organized the No-Tobacco League, and kindred movements, to keep the rank poison of nicotine away from children, so that they may have a chance to grow into clean, strong, robust, manhood and womanhood, the tobacco men can find no words strong enough to express their hatred for these "red-hot, yet sensible, reformers." We may as well face facts. It would be rank hypocrisy for any one to claim that the millions of dollars spent in advertising tobacco is with the hope of getting more smokers among the adults — it is to get the children. If the tobacco men would leave the children alone they would find many "red-hot reformers" comparatively quiet on the tobacco question. No one knows better than the tobacco men that if they do not get boys to smoke they would soon find their business on the decline, for the reason that but few persons take up smoking after they get out of their teens. "New smokers, boys and girts, begin on cigarettes and generally stick to it," says the Tobacco Record, in its issue of March 26, 1924. Bits of Philosophy Sophistication is not education. Feeling big does not make you big. Joy living is better than joy riding. The worship of self kills the better self . The deep sounding sermon is better than the high sounding sermon. When you try to be the whole show you are never more than half the show. It is more important to know what to do with your life than to know how your life originated. A creed that is so little that a little soul can believe it is hardly big enough to make any soul big enough to get into heaven. — Nephi Jensen.