How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.

age of thirty-five an aggressive, active, worldly woman, was entirely different from her husband’s. At the age of six she was thrown into the surf at a seaside resort, and swam out. She could not remember a day of illness during her entire childhood. Both her mother and father were active sportsmen and very courageous social individuals. The family ideal was the ideal of good sportsmanship. The harder the obstacle, the more fun in overcoming it. Thus Mrs. Adams was trained to a courageous, socially adjusted “ motor ” type of living. Her greatest happiness has always been in finding a worthy opponent and fighting hard to win. Defeats were never to be taken seriously—one must be a good sport, try hard the next time, and never mind if one didn’t win. The game was the thing. With this back¬ ground and this goal we can understand why Mrs. Adams prefers a stiff tennis match to an intellectual bout with Hegel or Nietzsche, and why she prefers dancing to a lecture on the ethics of Aristotle. Good ” and “ Bad ” Characters We frequently hear our friends saying that Mr. X. has a “ good ” character or that Mr. Y. is a “ vicious ” man. The student of human nature must abjure all moral evaluations of character and personality if he wishes to understand his fellow-men. It is a general human tendency to label people and take those labels seriously, as if they were true interpretations and explanations. If you wish to understand your neighbour (and there is no better practice in understanding your own goal, your own pattern, your own vital formula, and your own character and personality), try to put yourself in the other fellow’s place, and by identifying yourself with his actions, really understand them. A good way to do this is to say to yourself, “ Under what conditions, and to what end., would I be doing exactly the same thing ? ” If you can reconstruct the man’s goal, you will understand why he