Philosophy and religion -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- United States
Ruth answered: “It is each or both. Sometimes we speak of it as class,
or club, or lesson.”
“Surely it is a lesson,” said Henry, “because we have learned something
from it. Whatever you learn from is a lesson.”
Well, after all, I suppose I have given them my thought; and that is
what I must have meant to do.
I asked them what practical result the ideas had had upon their lives.
“Do you mean in action?” asked Marian. “I never stop to think of it when
I act, but I find that I refer my thoughts again and again to this
standard, when I don’t mean to, or expect to.”
“It is a habit of thought,” I answered, “and our habits of thought
unconsciously make our actions.”
“Yes,” said Virginia, “things that happen are always bringing to mind
the things we speak of here.”
“But we have not yet reached an absolute, stiff conclusion, have we?”
insisted Marian.
“No,” I answered; “we are going to be seekers all our lives—are we
not?—comrades in the search for light?”
“Surely,” they said.
“And,” I went on, “I want something more of you. I have noticed that you
all are very shy about talking of the club to outsiders. But it seems to
me that it is worth while telling your thought and your truth, that you
must not only seek, but share what you find.”
“You mean,” said Virginia, “that we should try to get converts, like the
Catholics?”
“Yes,” I answered, “converts to seeking.”
“It is very hard,” Ruth said, “to talk to outsiders of these things. I
can tell my mother. She understands. But we have made a language of our
own at the club, and other people don’t understand it. When I begin to
tell them, they ask: ‘What sort of language are you using?’”
“That is a pity,” I answered, “and yet we could hardly help it. Perhaps
we should have tried to use other words.”
“No,” said Ruth, “I think it is a very beautiful language, and we must
use it. But it makes it hard to tell others.”
“People don’t want to understand,” said Henry. “When you begin to tell
them what it is about, they make up their minds they won’t understand
such things. They set out with that idea.”
Marian said: “I often speak of certain things we discussed, just as the
other day I was speaking of women’s professions and social life. But it
is impossible to tell the whole idea. One would have to begin at the
beginning.”
“Yes,” I answered, “it would be a whole course. So you have to content
yourself with telling the unessential parts. But I hope that you will
absorb this idea into your life and your actions, and then find new
words in which to tell the same truth almost unconsciously, words that
will be made clear to all through your own experience.
“We see clearly how each one of us will draw strength and judgment from
his limitless whole self. And the knowledge of our greatest desire will
make us teach our lesser desires to follow it, will make us shape and
use the whole of our life for the thing we want and love.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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