Seward Daily Gateway

AFRAID OF WRONG THINGS

You may have heard explorers talk about danger. They come back after years spent in deep jungles or arctic seas or arid deserts and tell us that they are afraid of getting run down by an automobile. They say they feel more in peril in one week of going about the streets of a busy city than in a year among wild animals and poisonous insects on cruel ice or under parching suns.

Part of this, perhaps, is a pose. But it does emphasize the fact that we humans haven't much sense of proportion about our fears.

Millions of people live their lives under the shadow of one fear after another. And the curious point of it is that they are afraid of the things least likely to happen, and careless of the real risks of life. We worry about catching some rare disease and are always letting ourselves catch cold.

We go out in fear of odd accidents such as trees falling on us, but run down a flight of stairs never thinking about the great number hurt every year by tumbling downstairs.

Many young people are so desperately afraid of losing their jobs that they don't go ahead and do the things that would win promotion; they ought to worry about not making progress.

We are afraid of what our neighbors will think of our clothes and our social standing, and forget what they may think of the quality of our minds and our true character.

We must wipe out of our minds petty and senseless fears. We must go boldly and confidently through life. We must be less afraid for our bodies and more afraid for our minds.

Above all, let us dread ignorance and intolerance, crooked thinking, sour prejudices, jumping at conclusions, and hurting the feelings of others.

The more we know and know truly, the less physical fear we have, for then we know how to guard against all kinds of dangers without worrying about them. Let such worry as we have time for be devoted not to what the world may do to us, but to what we may do for the world.-Ex.