Light your splendid torch

Nobody was going to mistake the woman for Mother Teresa.

The caller on Wednesday explained pointedly why she not only wasn’t going to contribute to the newspaper’s 31st annual holiday charity program, Press Christmas for All, but why she said she encourages others not to participate in programs “that reward lazy people.” Organizations like ours encourage some folks to stay on their rear ends, she asserted, rather than get up and help themselves.

As we tried to point out, many of the Press Christmas for All beneficiaries work exceedingly hard; they just work in low-paying jobs that don’t cover basic needs, let alone provide enough extra to buy a gift for the kids. There are others who can’t work because they carry the burden of physical illness, mental illness or both. Volunteers can attest that the vast majority of people who line up for a little help are anything but lazy.

Yet this editorial isn’t meant to be directed at the thousands of Kootenai County residents who will receive Press Christmas for All assistance soon. It’s directed at the thousands of others who could help; people like the woman who called Wednesday.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish-born playwright, philosopher and polemicist who ruthlessly assailed people with whom he disagreed. He also deeply understood the anatomy of happiness.

We dedicate the following wisdom to the woman who called The Press and others who might agree with her.

•••

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

— George Bernard Shaw