HERALD Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas. Founded 1897. BENEVOLENCE
VOLUME 55 — NO. 11
HUMANITY
BROTHERHOOD
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 with Undeli yeralOe Copies to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, POR 100, TEMPLE, TEX. 76501
MARCH 15, 1967
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK THIS, THAT, AND THE OTHER
I SHALL NOT PASS . . .
Maybe this question has been posed to you: If you had your choice, would you live in the present, a hundred years ago, or a hundred years hence? We may nostalgically think about "the good ole' days," and curiosity may tease us to want to live a hundred years from now, but if we are really honest with ourselves, we must surely answer that we prefer to live now — in the present. • • I have been on this planet long enough to know that it is an utter waste of time and a vexation of spirit to indulge in idle fantasies of what might have been, of daydreams of opportunities to come, or in morbid memories of opportunities missed. Of course, we owe reverence to the past, and we certainly have a duty to the future. But we are of the present, and it is the now that counts with us. Contentment and happiness lies within ourselves. We can talk and fly across continents and oceans now; Man could not do this a hundred years ago. But don't you suppose they enjoyed life any less than we now do? Don't kid yourself. The opportunities to enjoy life, to express ourselves, amount to
Through this toilsome world, alas! Once and only once I pass; If a kindness I may show, If a good deed I may do To a suffering fellow man, Let me do it while I can. No delay, for it is plain I shall not pass this way again. —Unknown something, were just as plentiful then as they are now, or ever will be, and vice versa. Who said retire? Everyone looks forward to the day when time is pretty much his own, to be spent in the manner most desired, perhaps in leisure. But actually, retirement from the worries of making a living and remaining active are quite different. Too often, we see elderly people retire "into a shell" and withdraw from all outside activity. Some of men's greatest accomplishments were achieved by men during advanced age. Kant wrote his "Anthropology" at 74; Verdi wrote his famous opera "Otella" at 74; Goethe completed his "Trilogy of Passion" at
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74; Titian painted his historic "Battle of Lipanto" at 98; Pablo Cassals is still one of the world's greatest musicians at 82'; Thomas Edison was active until the very end; ex-Presidents Eisenhower and Truman remain active in several fields at their advanced ages. They will remain "young" in spirit, although the years have advanced upon them. All of us, in our own special way, can continue making contributions to society until the very end, if we set our minds and bodies to it. The crises that people find themselves in are oftentimes of their own making and creation. Man is so sensitive a creature that he will almost never publicly and voluntarily admit making a mistake. Our troubles and crises are compounded, not so much by the mistake itself, as by the overwhelming instinct of trying to defend and camouflage those mistakes. Society and our brethren would be spared untold grief and unpleasantness if people would not consider it such a tragedy to admit their errors, publicly or otherwise. It is not a sign of weakness, but rather an outward sign of our strength of character. Sidney J. Weinberg, chairman of the