There are people whose minds are like a lumber-room, littered with all
sorts of odds and ends. In such a room it is impossible to count on
laying hands promptly on a desired article, and in such a mind confusion
takes the place of order. The mind had better be empty. An empty mind
presents a fine opening for the proper kind of filling, but a confused
mind is hopeless. How is it possible to make the memory a helpful
servant unless nothing is allowed to find lodgment there that is not
worth while?
An old proverb says, "No one can keep the birds from flying about his
head, but one can keep them from nesting in his hair." That proverb
points the way to saving the mind from becoming a lodging place for
lumbering thoughts and ideas; everything that is certain to hinder
instead of help one to be worth-while to the world must be told that
there is "positively no admittance."
Among the things one must not afford permission to pass the bars is the
thought that some associate may have said or done something that seemed
like a slight or an injury. No man can afford to injure another, but any
man can better afford to be injured than to allow his thoughts to dwell
on the injury, to brood over it, until he is in a degree unfitted for
his work. Far better is it to be like a father who said to his son when
the latter, years after the commission of the deed, was speaking of his
sorrow that he had grieved his father so: "Son, you must be dreaming; I
don't recall the incident."
Then one must know when to forget evil things heard of another.
Sometimes it is necessary to remember such facts, but so often the
insinuations made concerning other people are not worth consideration,
because they are not true. Even where there is ground for them, they are
not proper subjects for thought and remembrance.
It is best to forget past achievements, unless they are made
stepping-stones to greater achievements, spurs to work that could never
be done without them. Yet how often the temptation comes to gloat in
thought over these things, and over the good things said of one because
of them, while opportunities for greater things are passed by. Thus a
school-boy thought with delight of a word of commendation from his
teacher when he ought to have been giving attention to the recitation of
the pupil next to him; the result was a reprimand that stung. A soldier
in the trenches has no time to gaze in admiration at the medal he has
won by valor when at any moment there may sound the call to deeds of
still greater valor. No more should a civilian imperil future success by
failure to forget "the things which are behind."
The individual who refuses to forget a kindness he has done to someone
else is another cumberer of the ground. A safe rule is, never forget a
kindness received from another, but forget at once a kindness done to
another. It is not difficult to sympathize with the youth who, after
being reminded for the twentieth time by his brother of a trip to New
Orleans for which the brother had paid out of his savings, said, "Yes,
and I wish I had never taken a cent of the money!"
A thing to be forgotten always is the off-color story with which some
people persist in polluting the atmosphere. Unfortunately there are
always to be found folks like the young man of whom Donald Hankey said
"He talks about things that I won't even think." When such talk is
heard, don't think of it. If you do, you are apt to think of it again
and again, until, perhaps, you will be telling it to some one else. And
no one wants to be remembered as was the business man, proposed for the
presidency of a great concern, of whom one said, "No, don't let's have
him; he has earned a reputation for telling questionable stories."
If a good memory is to be a good servant, it must be trained to remember
only the things that are helpful. And that takes courage!
V