“Yes. You should be now right in your prime, knowing how to use and
enjoy life. If you are thrown on the dump-heap, it is because you
have put your own self there.”
You may laugh. You may say that I was tired and a little woozy in
the head. But I _know_ the Voice did speak. It spoke to my inner
consciousness, but the thoughts were not my own. I even winced from
some of the things it said.
It makes no difference whether or not you believe in the Voice, you
must be impressed by the results of its teachings as applied in my
own life. For I followed its teachings and learned the Great Lesson.
This first night only the glimmering light of a new understanding
came to me. But that light grew. I saw that, up to now, I had been
putting upon others all the blame for my own weaknesses-and thought
of myself as a helpless victim of an unenlightened social order. I
was slumping into a slough of self-pity. Worst of all, _I was losing
my sense of humor_. I know that this is the big calamity. As long as
a man can laugh humorously-laugh with his mind as well as with his
mouth-he has the vitality to create new brain-cells.
And, after this first talk with the Voice, _I smiled at myself!_-a
thing of big encouragement! One has caught at a strong life-saver
when he can rise above the swamping power of self-pity long enough to
laugh at his own weaknesses.
When I was putting on my overcoat, getting ready to go over to
Brooklyn, I took a critical survey of myself in the bedroom mirror.
I had been considered a pretty good-looking man-was tall and
broad-shouldered, and had been quite athletic in my day. But I could
see now that in many ways I had let myself grow old. There was no
necessity for me to be so stooped, with such a caved-in chest and
protruding abdomen. I pulled myself up and saw that I could stand
straight. And I realized at once more command of myself when I stood
right, with my chest up and my abdomen pulled in. Yes, I could stand
straight when I made the effort.