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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1960)
DON'T JUST GIVE UP FOR LENT By TAYLOR CALDWELL Author of the best-selling novel, "Dear and Glorious Physician" A distinguished novelist describes fiow this season of sacrifice can take on new meaning for all of us ' Taylor Caldwell is Mrs. Marcus Reback in home life. Lent calls for earnest sacrifice. Many of us give - up candy (especially if we eat candy very rarely), and some give up smoking (except the heavy smokers, who'd rather give up eating), and some don't read books, particularly if they don't like books anyway. Most of us I'm guilty, too give up things that aren't absolutely essential to our happiness, and we feel virtuous about it So, while "giving up" something that isn't a strain on our characters, our appetites, and our pleasures, why not give some thing for Lent?- I know a very shy lady, almost a recluse, who is doing just that. She has had a very unhappy life and is terrified by people, for very excellent rea sons. She rarely, if ever, entertains. Her last din ner party was some six years ago, and she hasn't really recovered yet. This year she is going to search for lonely and unhappy people like herself and in vite them to her home for dinner at least once a week. She may even decide to "give" such dinners for the rest of her life. And then there is a very fashionable minister in our town. He has to be a community director, a ' young people's pal, a good fellow, a fine hand at bridge, a sportsman (most of his parishioners are sportsmen), a businessman, politician, member of the FT A, lecturer, party-giver in the parish hall, and speaker at local clubs. In short, he is expected to be everything but the shepherd of his flock except in his spare time. . ' , . For Lent, he is not going to do a single one of . these things demanded of him by his congregation. He is going to make house-to-house calls on people he doesn't know, who don't belong to any church, who have no interest in religious things, who are unhappy and drifting, who go about with sullen, challenging faces, who have no friends; who are, in the true meaning of the word, Godless. Many of them are rich; some are poor. He has been in sulted by them many times. Now, for Lent, he is going to give himself. He will go to each of their houses and say, "Let me help you!" If they offend him by indifference or insult, he is just going to sit there and talk to them. I predict he will bring back many of these lost sheep to the fold. I also predict that, from Lent on, he will be a real shepherd to his people, not just a "pal to them." A mother I know told me that her 16-year-old boy is not going to ask for his allowance during Lent He is going to find odd jobs to do after school and, after his minimum expenses, he is going to give the balance to the collection plate in church. A rather spoiled and pampered boy, he will become a man from this experience, I think. A young girl I have heard of has decided to stop her endless telephone calls during Lent She has found that there are many harassed young moth ers in her neighborhood who could use some help, . so she is going to give her services, free, in baby . sitting and other chores. I am .sure she will learn from this that, as St Francis believed, it is in giving that we are given. A gossip columnist I know is going to try to write nice things about people he meets instead of "amus ing" anecdotes which cause embarrassment, sad ness, and ill-will. He is going to "give" his column to help others rather than to injure and ridicule them. He will relate stories of various personali ties who, without encouragement and in obscurity, reached for the stars instead of the nearest lolli pop. He will tell of men and women who have never whined, "I didn't have a chance," but who made their own chances and never gave up. How refreshing in these days when everybody wants something for nothing! I've heard of a whole class of young people who are going .to help their exhausted teacher for Lent They are not going to demand that she amuse them or supervise their "play" after school hours. They will offer to help her correct papers, clean up the classroom, and perform other chores. Several of the boys have cars of their own. The teacher can't afford one. So the boys, in turn, are going to call for her in the morning and take her home after school. They may decide, I hope, to continue this though tf ulness after Lent They may see, for the first time, that their teacher is not their servant, but that she is there to educate . them and prepare them for the fierce world beyond the schoolroom. A small and weary businessman received a let ter from his 10 employees the other day. They wrote him that for Lent they are going to give him a full day's work for a full day's pay. He was stupefied, and I don't think he quite believes it, even now. Christ spent His Lent in the wilderness, prepar ing to give His life for us. There was never a sac rifice in the world to compare with this, and never again will there be. What are any of our sacrifices beside Christ's? What are we going to "give" for Lent, as well as -"give up" for it? We may find that the "giving" is of lifelong im portance to us, and that the "giving up" was not a 10th as valuable, either for ourselves or for others. COVER: The cheer is the thing in Ozzie Sweet's 'action-packed shot of America's No. 1 spectator sport. For a picture feature of unusual basketball doings, see p. 18. nX.oZ.T.. March 6, I960 LEONARD S. DAVIDOW President and Publisher WALTEI C MEYFUS Vice President PATRICK E. OtOUUCE Advertising Director Sond all advertising communications to Family Wookly. 153 N. Michigan Av... Chicago 1, III. Address oil conmwnicotfocis obout ditoriot features to familr Wookly. 60 E. 56th St, Nw York 22. N. Y. Board of Editors ERNEST V. MEYN Editor-in-Chief EN KARTMAN Executive Editor ROtERT FtTZOIMON Managing Editor MARGARET HU Feature Editor PHILLIP DYKSTRA Art Director MELANIE DE PROfT Pood Editor Bob Driscoll, Irma lUldmuii, John Hochjnann, Jorry Hoin, Harold London, Jack Ryan; Poor Opponhinior, Hollywood. 9 me, FAMILY WEEKLY MAGAZINE, INC, 153 N. Michigan Ave, Chicago I, III. All righto morvod. ! 1 i ! I 4
