Page:Lynch Williams--The girl and the game.djvu/370

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

AN UNOFFICIAL BACCALAUREATE

the idea of interdependence. Avoid the blind spot. Think of the other fellow's point of view. Don't strain at life, for living and all that the term connotes is, after all, a natural, normal process.

If you do that I sha'n't fear that your life will become sordid and selfish, for your sympathy and your intelligence and your religion will do the rest. You will do the square thing, the kind thing, the generous thing—not because a scowling sense of duty says "must," but because you want to, because that's the way you will get your fun. And so when certain critical moments come you will not find it so outlandishly hard to do perhaps the noble thing, the occasional act of self-sacrifice—because it will seem to you to be the only thing to do, the thing you expect of yourself, and the way to get your zest.

You have had some bad times with yourself in these four years, now over; you will doubtless have worse ones. You have had a bit of hard luck; you are pretty sure to have some harder luck. You have not made

342