Newspapers / North Carolina Federation of … / Dec. 1, 1956, edition 1 / Page 4
Part of North Carolina Federation of Negro Women’s Clubs Journal / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Winter 1956 JUNIOR CORNER OF THE FEDERATION JOURNAL Page 4 YOUNG (Continued from Page 3) method might mean, and he would say, Francis Bacon, in the 16th century. But Bacon was only 15 years old when the great idea took possession of him. Speaking of that day in life of that 15-year- old boy, one scholar says, “I be lieve it ought to be regarded as the most important event in his life; the event which had a great er influence than any other upon his character and future course.” The more one studies life, the more one feels that the future of the world is always being deter mined by what happens in the young. Indeed, remember that other 12-year-old boy, Jesus, who as tounded his household by asking deep questions of the doctors of the law in the Temple, and who said to his amazed family, “Knew ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” What pro phetic hours do come to the young! The turning points of his tory are there. I presume it is worthwhile preaching to the old; sometimes I wonder how much worthwhile it is. Think what might happen if some boy or girl should see a great vision, should be taken possession of by an im portant truth, should make an influential decision! Let us, then, take up our text: “You are not yet 50 years old.” So what! Well, so being young, you have zest and enthusiasm; you love a good game; you can tackle life as though it too were a game, to be played with sports manship, where you learn to be a good loser when you must and a flne winner when you can. For while I am saying today that boyhood and girlhood are immensely important, I am not saying that they are easy stages to go through. They are not. Old people, if they are wise, expect trouble and get used to facing it, but when a young boy or girl for the first time runs into something mighty hard, some humiliating disappointment, some shattering insecurity in the home, some crippling handicap of the body, that is a tough experience for the young to face. When I was a boy there was a bit of popular verse that had a good deal of influence in my young life. The books call it anonymous, although one friend tells me Jacob Riis wrote it, but here it is: “One ship drives east, another drives west While the selfsame breezes blow; ’Tis the set of the sail and not the gale That bids them where to go. Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate As we journey along through life; ’Tis the set of the soul that de cides the goal And not the calm or the strife.” Well, what we are saying today comes down to this: It’s when you’re young that you decide what is going to be the set of your soul, and that is the most important thing in life. Again look at our text: “You are not yet 50 years old.” So what! Well, so being young, if you will you can start now a rich, deep, worthwhile inner life, and that is a great matter. I suppose you boys and girls do not read iiouisa Alcott’s stories any more as my generation did, but you are indebted to her all the same, for she was a pioneer in writing oooks for children. When she was i2 years old she wrote this one day in her diary: “I had a pleas ant time with my mind, for it was nappy.” That is one of the main oecrets of life. Well, why not have a pleasant time with our minds? What fas cinating things there are to think about! There is the world that science, for example, opens up. Suppose that railroad tracks were laid from the earth to the sun. Suppose that an express train, running at full speed, should leave the earth today for the sun, with two ba’oies on board named Jim and Mary. When the express crain arrived at the sun, who do you think would be on board to get off? I’ve got it all flgured out. It would be Jim’s and Mary’s great - great - great - great-great- great-grandson. Six generations born and growing up on that ex press train between earth and the sun. My word! What a universe in which to have a good time with one’s mind! Don’t start living in a mean and measly world of small concerns. Move out now in your mind into a world where there are great things to think about. And here too is the world that Christ opens up. It is necessary for happiness that we live on good terms with other people, but it is first of all necessary for hap piness that we live on good terms with ourselves. I and me—two of us—live inside of us, and if I and me are quarreling all the time, that is misery. After you are 50 years old, if you have not settled matters between I and me so that they get on well together, you’re not likely to do it. But now, when you are young, you can start right, with a rich, re warding, happy inner life of the kind that Christ has bestowed upon those who best have known Him. When you have done wrong. Are You Enrolled With Teenicides?' 'feenagers of every generation as rne concern or tne aaults of cne previous generation; and rigntiy so. wnen teenagers are seen in aciion tne question comes: ■ Wnat is mis worm coming tor” rou neea only read tne papers aim imd some ot tne answers, mis aoes not inciuae all by any, means nut tar too many. borne are concerned about the news on, “Teen-age kiiiers at and insiae yourseli you are nav- ing a areauiui time witn your conscience, you no not neea to stay mac way. Repentance, con fession, forgiveness — you can clean up your mind. Wnen you are up against temptations too strong for you, or crouDies coo iiara lor you, you ao not need to uepena merely on yourself—you can learn now now quiet prayer opens up your spirit to screngm greater man your own, so tnai you can ao what you ought to ao, ana can stand wnat you must enaure. Look at tnat text again: “Not yet 5U years old.” So wnat! Well, so you, being young, have still a life to give to those saving forces cnat in me ena can make for all inankina a better world. Wnen a man is ou years old, he already nas given nimself to the aims that master nis life. He has given him self to gooa or evil, to sobriety or alcoholism, to self-centerea- ness or public service. By 50, a man’s lire nas been given away CO some master or other, good oi bad, almost beyond recall. Today cne excitement one feels abouc you boys ana girls is tnat you still nave your lives to give. I am not saying that there is no hope ror people over 50. Haydn wrote ms great oratorio, “The ureation, m ms 60s, and Glad stone even said tnat had he diea at 70, fully naif of his life’s work would have been left undone. There are lives that have a glo rious lace autumn, full of fruit, but when tnat happens, it always goes back to decisions made, nabits formed, loyalties chosen, when such men were young. Well, you are not yet 50 years old, but some day you will be. An older man cannot help thinking of that today. Sometime you will be 50 years old, and that can be a glorious period of life, full of ricn friendships, happy memories, the consciousness of good causes served and work well done, and within oneself the resources of God’s power and peace. But that depends on what—no, let us pul it the Christian way, on whom you give yourself to now. By Dr. Harry E. Fosdick the wheel.” Behind too many nignway tragedies lies a new form Of mass muraer and seif-destruc- cion, it seems, known increasing ly as “teenicide.” Even with the electric speed device, “the Black X50X, ' papers often carry a rather long list of traffic violators. Our state held special meetings to set up programs in each county. The records show that once every two minutes, day in, day out, some teenicide accident will kill or maim a victim somewhere in cne United States. Insurance companies generally believe the recklessness of the teens extend to the age of 25 years. PTgures in a recent year spiraled to a shocking 7,500 dead and 275,000 injured for under 25 group. Even in terms of money aiivers under 25 probably cost tne nation almost as much as tne 600-million-dollar yearly cost of all fores. About 1946 al most all the states raised the pre- iniums insurance companies were allowed to charge if anyone un- aer 25 drove the car. The High way Safety Committee reports cnat the 16-20 age group is in volved in five times as many ac cidents as the 45-50 group, though noth groups hold the same num ber of driving licenses. They say driving is directly related to ma turity and judgment. These facts are both sickening and appalling because they are so needless, for maturity and judg- inent in driving can be taught. To prove this fact the American Auto Assn., in eleven high schools instituted a safety course, using a fleet of cars equipped with dual controls. Out of 1800 students laking the course, checked against about the same number ivho did not take it, the trained students had only half as many accidents. Once a survey was made among nigh school students by Chevrolet Motor Co. that listed the causes for their accidents in this order; clowning—speeding — dreaming —disregard of traffic signs. Another investigation showed that in our large cities such tricks as piling half a dozen boys in a car and driving for an hour at 60 miles an hour, then release the steering wheel. The first boy to touch the wheel or brake is labeled “chicken.” In one year that game killed 30 boys. Other such lunatic games as “spider” ana “dip-thrill” and “loopers,” have been found among teen-age tribes. It is said that nearly 25 per cent of the traffic deaths are a di rect result of the frivolous or careless attitudes of juvenile See TEENICIDES? Page 5
North Carolina Federation of Negro Women’s Clubs Journal
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 1, 1956, edition 1
4
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75