Image provided by: The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; Grand Ronde, OR
About Weekly Chemawa American. (Chemawa, Or.) 189?-198? | View Entire Issue (July 27, 1906)
THE CIIEMAWA AMERICAN 7 Xo Opportunities But Present Ones. An old man sat weeping over what he might have been and was not, and what' he might have done and did not. A voung man lay on his bed dreaming of the future, and he dreamed such great things, as he thought of what he would so ire day be and some day do, that the tears rilled his eyes and he wept himself. Vain tears! The old man's chance was gone; the you rig's never came. For practical life there is no future and there is no past. Surely there are no such things as past and future opportunities. Opportunity is purely a present term. We cannot go back one second in time. We cannot go forward one second. All the time there is the one instant that hashes across one's will and is gone. All the real op portunities lie in that instant. In that instant they are always lying, while the old man cried over the un changeable past, and the young man over the future that would fever be, the golden opportunities that were slipped by. The old man might have redeemed his life and begun anew. The young man might then have been in his real character the great dream that he dreamed. Each had in the living time the only real opportunity, and might have in that, time been what he was not. We should live better if we would give our attention to living. Don't repine over past unkindness. Re kind now. Let us embrace our present opportuni ties. There are no others. Ex. Have von ever noticed how much you can learn if you keep your mouth shut and your eyes open? When ftoloman spoke th" proverb in regard to a fool be-' ing counted wise when he holds his peace, he spoke a great truth, and yet, in itself it is a contradiction, for a man who keeps his mouth shut is a wise man, not a fool, for a, fool does not do this. Whenever you feel like talking, then is the time to refrain. A great many men have regretted refraining from speech, f there is anything you par ticularly feel like telling, don't tell it, or put off the telling of it till next day; by that time you will see the uselesniess of it. If you talk all the time you will have no time to think, and it is the thinkers who gain their end in this world. If you hear someone talking and you know about, the subject, say nothing, but look wise, and it's two to one that he will have the impression that you know as much about it or more than he does. Never display your know ledge, for either the ones who hear or see you will know more about the sub ject than you (h, and the things that seem hard for you will be easy for them ; they will hold you in contempt; or they will know nothing about it and will praise vou to your own undoing, for "pride gooth before a fall.'' A man who can control his tongue and is a w illing listener is welcome every where. Ex. A Cheerful r'mile When" it drizzles and drizzles, If we cheerfully smile. We can make the weather. By working together, As fair as we choose in a Utile while. For who will notice that the clouds are drea r If pleasant faces are always near, And who will remember that skies are gray It he carries a happv heart all dav? Ex.
