Biola Broadcaster - 1973-12

THE MOST

All of us are faced with the prob­ lems surrounding the distress of the hour in which we are living. The other day, while in a repair store, my eye was attracted to a sign over the claim counter. I had to smile as I read the tongue-in-cheek phi­ losophy, “As soon as the rush is over, I'm going to have a nervous breakdown. I worked for it! I owe it to myself. And nobody is going to deprive me of it." Somewhere in our minds we have the feeling that discouragement is a haunting specter. It is something that comes to all of us. Who would not like to be rid of those days when the "blues" beset us? In Florida, where we have lived, dog racing is still permitted. Al­ though I have never seen any of these events, nor do I care to, it was amusing the other day to learn of something that took place at a track known as "Derby Lane." It seems that one greyhound was be­ ing exercised by its trainer using the mechanical rabbit to test the canine's speed. This is set up al­ ways to out-pace the dog every time. In this instance, however, as

the greyhound was running for all it was worth, trying to get the mechanical metal rabbit, the ma­ chinery mysteriously broke down. The rabbit stopped in a dead heap. The dog got its prize. In so doing, however, it was totally frustrated. This had never happened before. The dog did not know what to do with the metal stimulator it had been conditioned to think it want­ ed. So is this "despair over mean­ inglessness" which appears to be on every hand. Some years ago a Russian author, Dostoevsky, wrote in his famous novel, "Brothers Karamazov," this thought: "If there is no Cod then everything is permitted." Philoso­ phy-wise, he capsulized just exact­ ly what is happening in the world today. It seems that moral stand­ ards have been thrown out the window. If you do not believe it, look at any magazine news stand or paperback book rack, or ads for current pictures. All of this frus­ tration centers in what is known as "existential depression." The ques­ tion people are asking, not only our youth, but also those who have

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