While The Kettle Boils

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 80, 3 January 1941, Page 43

While The Kettle Boils

Dear Friends, Well, another Christmas is now behind us. At the present moment most of us are recovering from too much Christmas cheer-too many good things to eat. The Christmas turkey and chicken were offered up in annual sacrifice, and the Christmas lamb, while Christmas puddings were explored to the last currant for lucky charms and threepenny pieces. No one has pretended to take this week seriously. The period between. Christmas and the New Year is a balancing between two stools. No sooner is one gone than the other is upon us. The New Year celebrations, however, always seem to me a more solemn occasion. There is a melancholy in seeing the Old Year out and the New Year in. Perhaps it is the unknown that prompts this feeling. At least we knew the Old Year’s worst. But the New Year comes to us like a new-born babe, and nobody knows what sort of a person he is going to be when he grows up. _ As the last chime of the Old Year tolls, hearts all over the world are lifted in hope. Hope for better things to come. Hope for all the dreams and aspirations that failed us in 1940; hope-a universal hope for a world peace. One must not overlook New Year resolutions. They are as traditional as the ceremonial turkey-and usually as fleeting in their effect. We feel re-born with the New Year. We are going to turn over a new leaf; do all the things we left undone in the Old Year, We fairly bristle with resolute and lofty sentiments. But by the time January is well in hand most of our good resolutions have slipped-and then we think, well, perhaps, we will leave them till next year. And so life goes on. There is one resolution, however, that every woman can and should make in the New Year. That is, to do something active towards helping along the war cause. Hundreds of women throughout New Zealand have been for months past on the job, but there are many others who have never actually got to the point of moving into action. Start with the New Year. Make it your resolution. If you don’t know where to begin, the Women’s War Service Auxiliary will find a place for you. You will find a cordial welcome in their ranks. There is work for everyone and it does not require any special aptitude or talent. Just select the type of work you like bestand the W.W.S.A. will do the rest. The happiest women are those who are busy on war work. It occupies the brain and hand and carries with it the unique satisfaction of a job well done-and in the same cause for which our own boys are fighting overseas. You will be playing your part.

The New Year- brings with it, too, a fresh crop of war-brides. The total of wartime weddings has been steadily mounting, and ministers of all denominations are kept busy every day of the week, You will find people who criticise these young people who are rushing into matrimony. That, I think, is a matter

that concerns the two interested parties. It is impossible to generalise on the question. If it is right with them-if they are doing what their heart and their sense of fitness dictates, then criticism is presumptuous. The future belongs to them, and they will build their own world together, Maybe the answer lies in that last word. Being together, The troubles of the world loom less tragic-

ally when two people who love eaci other walk hand-in-hand. Good luck and good wishes to all our New Year brides! Yours cordially,

Cynthia