A ROOM OF OUR OWN

...Feeling as I always have, the deepest personal sense of outrage at every aspect of war, if it exists on my path and those of my neighbors* . I cannot honestly save myself and those I love...

...This fact is impressed on me again and again as we see instances where we fail to grasp the point-of-view of those with different experience...

...I hope I don't underestimate the suffering involved in taking...

...The doctor, for instance, can set out his shingle.in a slum district, or he can get a job as a research worker...

...We mortals are creatures of such varying capacities that it is hard to take measure eveft of odrselves...

...For if you embark in a certain field and see a job that you are convinced must be, done, how can you justify "saving" yourself for the pleasanter aspects ? That is why I am not a pacifist...

...The Triumph Of Character I realize that "character" is an old-fashioned and seldom-mentioned term these days, but it has been a goal I have worked for with our children...

...In normal times the individual has at least some degree of choice in guiding his life...

...we all do, that people have to meet them...

...A professor remarked regarding the seamy side of life which medical students encounter in the slums of our great cities during their training, that he thought it a mistake to throw the young people up against conditions they can do nothing to remedy...

...In the matter of training the young, therefore, I have to line up on the painful side of be-Jjeving they must accept personal responsibility for accomplishing their ideals...

...They see .their ^contemporaries-utilizing their brains and abilities in their chosen field,1 increasing their skills and earning power, while for the great mass of servicemen the war, is "time out" witlk, death always in the offing...

...The farmer, the writer, the worker, the politician, the doctor, within the limits of their environment and capacity, choose, whether they are aware of it or not, certain values...

...Because* unfortunately, actual experience produces effects—both good and bad—that the intellect and even imagination cannot...

...When a mother complains to me about her son being "washed out" of some one of the service educational programs, I remirid her that at least he was not on the beaches of Normandy or Saipan...

...The professor a.gain demurred, saying that suffering was not good for people, did not "improve" them, but rather left scars which they carry all their lives...

...But oh, we yearn, why can't we draw the line where people have experienced enough but not too much...

...Every parent knows full well the eternal struggle within himself and herself to try to save the child from painful experience even though we recognize that they have got to make their own mistakes: Fortunately, nature is against us and most children fight valiantly for the freedom to stand on their own feet...

...Scars Better Than Smugness Here we have a problem which every thoughtful person examines from time to time but especially in these hard days...

...We see people around us Apparently well-adjusted who re-, treat or go to pieces when faced with trials which seem to bring to light unsuspected powers in others'less fortunately placed...

...both are important...

...One of my war "widow" friends whose husband has been gone for nearly three years, told me recently "Isabel, I am getting callous, and I don't like it...

...Must Accept Responsibility The bitterness of many of our soldiers arises from what they consider, the inequalities of opportunity in the conduct of war...

...All around us we see people who insist on their own terms or retreat...

...From my observation, the rich human beings are those who can take the bitter with the sweet and build the triumph of "character...

...The mother again, insisted that if the conditions exist, decry them as...

...He reiterated his statement that it was useless "education" to expose the youth to conditions he can do nothing about...

...an "unpopular" position—something I ought to know a little about!—but if the isslle is one you feel strongly about, you have to be prepared to pay the full price...

...that the result will be, instead of filling them with fighting zeal, to harden inside them a protective shell to shut out the painful conditions that exist...

...If you believe that war—be it in terms of disease, social and political conditions, or whatever field—must be fought, how can one justify saving oneself...

...Most of the population is carrying burdens, facing situations, and enduring varying degrees of suffering which draw heavily on the individual's'inner resources...

...The mother of a woman medical student immediately took issue with this attitude, saying that doctors have to deal with such conditions and the student has to learn to take what comes and not be "protected" from the realities of life...

...As I interpolated in the other evening's discussion, I am against suffering for suffering's sake, but for most of us mortals the knowledge of our own difficulties produces an understanding and sympathy for others staggering under their own loads...

...You will think I am "bugs" with my constant emphasis on "opportunity" for individuals, but here is another instance of what I mean...

...So long as one is engaged in an endeavor, whether athletics, acting, history, music, or whatever, I hold that to get the maximum out of it one must be prepared to put all he has into it, and "no holds barred...

...Until war comes into the picture, this is a personal choice...

...The terrible tragedy is that so few of us are willing to face the pain and effort of getting" at the causes that produce war, or slums...

...I told her I knew only too well what she meant, but much as I fear callousness and bitterness with which nature tends to protect the sore, spots, I would rather risk them than the smug narrowness of the ivory tower...

...I have tried to insist that in the various activities of youth, they meet the hurdles on each path...