THE DAILY MESSAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1928, Page 1

THE DAILY MESSAGE

BE YOURSELF ! You may fight hard for a great cause—•you may fight long for a great faith—you may fight fearlessly for a great ideal—but one of the longest grimmest fights in this life is the fight to be yourself. It’s a stiff fight to find yourself. It’s a, stifFer fight to bold on to yourself when you are found—hard to bo yourself—to be just what you are—to live what you believe—to say just what you think—to follow what you know to be true—to pursue the ideal which to you makes life worth living. It’s a long fight—and uphill all the way. Great are the influences arrayed against; you who wish to bo yourselves.

The living make it difficult for any of us to be ourselves, but the dead make it wellnigh impossible—certainly impossible to any but the strongest.

Tradition—Law—Custom—these are the weapons by which the dead mould the living. So strong is the power which the dead wield, so subtle its influence, that few are able to and to be themselves. We fare expected to conform, and we find ourselves—in spite of ourselves—being surely woven into the pattern of the past. It is only a little while, and \ve move in a world which is not ours. We worship the correct gods—we conform to the correct ideals—we say the correct thing—we read the correct literature—we make the correct comments —we seek tho correct amusements —we dress in the correct way—we furnish our homes in the correct fashion. Only in our thoughts do we remain ourselves, and even then only some ol

Your most precious possession is yourself; the greatest gift which you can give to the world can only be given by the unfolding of yourself. So why submerge yourself? Why conceal yourself? Why.disguise yourself? We should fight against standardisation as we would against suffocation. Why surrender ourselves—our ideals—our beliefs —our sincerities —our purpose—just from the fear of criticism 'or to gain the approval of society ? Hold oh to yourself, and leave your own footprints on the sands of time Few" of us have the strength to resist the influences of the living, who would fashion us, and of the dead, who would mould us. But 'the few who can, and do, resist, and who hold on to themselves —-who fight for their own expression'—do the things they believe in—stand for the things which to them are true- —follow an ideal which, like a perfect pearl, is a thing of such compelling beauty and power in their lives that all else conforms to it. They who resist to-day are those whom the world will follow to-morrow. —M. PRESTON STANLEY.