• Author: Unknown
• Editor: B-7413
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume 5
• Page Number:
• Date: 5 3 1916
• Tags:
• advice
• editorial

KEEP THE MIND AT WORK Not long ago I was a asked by a well meaning correspondent having knowledge of my work in the outer world, how I managed to keep up courage and enthusiasm sufficient to write for and edit a prison paper. As a fact the question was not to my liking. But I answered my friend of good intent, the substance of the reply being, that where there's a will, there's also a way. Furthermore, that the very worst thing a man undergoing a prison sentence can possibly do, is to allow his thinking powers to become clouded by disuse, or by brooding over past troubles, or by other generalities that depress the spirits. If a man in prison has an opportunity to keep his mind active with useful throughts (work), so much the better for him if he accepts the chance and makes the best of it. Things are bound. to balance true some day, though it may require a degree of patience to work out satisfactorily. This simple fact is too well known to need further comment. In writing, as in other classes of work, our writing is not alone the product of our own mind, but the result of the workings of other men's minds which have helped to would our mental development while in course of training. As the years crowd upon us the better we see and understand, the more we can appreciate the chance to work out the thoughts of others in our own language. The more one thinks, the more they can think; and precisely so it is in all lines of work. One of the best suggestions that I happen to recall to mind, was made by a professional man to a patient in his care, who had endured a long spell of sickness. "Get busy! And keep the mind active with helpful thoughts. If your own thoughts do not flow rapidly enough to keep the mind occupied, read some of the writings by authors of note, men who have caused others to think; then notice the results. In a little while you'll forget many of your own troubles, and new vigor will manifest itself in your betterment." The beauty of it all is, that all he said is perfectly true.