A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La follette TITH YOUR INDULGENCE I'm going to in-W augurate a new department," writes a youthful reader of The Progressive, "on Advice to Lovelorn Liberals, hoping...
...He was right, however, because as I observe to our children, you're "old" a lot longer than you're young, and the values of mature life are usually different from those of our high school days...
...Incidentally I like your column best of all...
...Or am I to believe that some rare birds are intended to live a rather solitary life bursing their own egos in preparation for the political wars that keep popping up...
...A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La follette TITH YOUR INDULGENCE I'm going to in-W augurate a new department," writes a youthful reader of The Progressive, "on Advice to Lovelorn Liberals, hoping that you'll play the role of a Dorothy Dix drawn to Progressive specifications...
...High school youths have to dress alike, look alike, act alike and think alike to be in the acceptable pattern...
...Al-though none of my best friends have so much as whispered it to me, I apparently have emotional halitosis, for I'm never quite so much at home as I am heisted up on a forum beating the drums for the march of humanity...
...Here Comes Dorothy Dix "Now if you will tell me what I'm to do about this, I'll be eternally indebted to you...
...It was cold comfort when father used to observe with a twinkle, "Never "mind, Slim, your time's coming...
...Your Time's Coming' As I remark to our children, who must be in the same age-range as yourself, young people develop very spottily, i.e., reach their maturity in mental, physical, emotional coordination at varying stages in their lives...
...When I was your age I had plenty of friends who liked to be my lab or debating partner, or walk the halls or to school with me, but that didn't get me to enough dances to satisfy the prevailing desire...
...I have been thankful that our children were under the age for the war marriage hysteria that goes with every war...
...Look at a detail you give concerning yourself...
...Apparently, however, there is an especial kind of spiritual affection which is intrinsically intended for mates-to-be-intended-for-each-other...
...grapple with the problems that arise, but do try to enjoy the grappling...
...Enjoy The Grappling Although of course there are exceptions, few people find their "mates-intended-for-each-other" at the high school stage...
...I can't help it, it really describes the situation...
...You are apparently beyond your companions in your concern with social problems...
...At first I thought it was the one thing next to Angelo Patri that could be done away with, but now I see that what the progressive movement needs is more of the warm generosity and feeling that women provide for hard-headed radicals...
...The main point that I would like to make to you is that painful as it is, the wonderful thing about life is growth...
...Perhaps your "girl friend" is a bit leary of the conspicuousness of your advanced views...
...And some day when you reach my ripe old age and are grappling with a growing family, you may be surprised at yourself to find how avidly you are drinking up the wisdom of Angelo Patri...
...But lo and behold, when I descend from the mighty podium, have nodded some knowing smiles to well-wishers, and retired to my beloved, I'm like a fish out of the water (that's almost a cliche...
...When I went to college, most of the senior girls I knew were engaged to boys overseas...
...Unfortunately, throughout life, but especially at your age, most people look askance at anyone who deviates from the accepted norm of behavior...
...Being labelled as the fiery prophet type places me in one of those awkward positions, the likes of which a squirming adolescent Lord Faunt-Ieroy never experienced...
...Is it so...
...Consider this then as a note of appreciation from an admirer of the male animal of the species...
...When the men came back all sorts of adjustments took place—engagements broken, partners switched, in fact very few married the particular individual each had been engaged to...
...A few months ago you weren't in the least interested in the woman's point of view as expressed in this column...
...Everyone has suffered his or her own problems and is therefore eager to observe how others try to deal with theirs...
...However, we can at least have a little visit...
...Your queries will strike a responsive chord in the memories of your elders and also among your contemporaries who are undergoing the same soul-search-ings and emotional chaos that are an inevitable part of the self-education of all sensitive human beings...
...and what you make of the goo-goo talk with the revolutionary implications is entirely up to you...
...Don't misunderstand me, I'm essentially a gregarious being, and if you'll beg pardon my immodesty, am the sought after type for social gatherings...
...Dear "Fish-out-of-water" (and aren't we all...
...You see I've been caught by the bellum hysteria, have found a girl whom I adore, and now find that all sorts of things seem to interfere with the course nature is supposed to take for me...
...Now that you are deeply concerned with a particular girl's reactions, a new world has opened up to you...
...What about that...
...I wish I could "answer" your questions, but if there were "answers" the columnists like Dorothy Dix and Beatrice Fairfax et al would be out of business...
...Or perhaps*you are looking - for qualities which this particular girl, for all her undoubted attractions, lacks...
...With human nature as it is, we are so often attracted to our op-posites and therefore caught in the ensuing conflicts of personality and interests which require patience and character to adjust successfully...
...It was not only the war experience itself, but the fact that it came at such a formative period in their lives, and their tastes and values changed...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 51
