An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.
Whose fool are you? Do you ever ask yourself this question? You should.
Sometime ago, I heard this story. A young boy, who had been labeled “slightly off” in his community, went down the street carrying a sign which read on the front, “I’m God’s Fool.” Many people laughed when they read the sign, but on the back, there was another sign reading, “Whose fool are you?”
It appears to me that at some stages in our lives, all of us are fools. There are things that come into our lives that make us act like fools, whether we are aware of it or not. I read a few days ago a description of a group of people referred to as lacking in moral integrity, lacking in emotional stability, lacking intellectual outlook, and lacking in cultural appreciation. I stopped and wondered just what could they have. But my mind made me know that when individuals are lacking in so much they could be nothing but plain fools. But as one looks about himself today we are almost prone to see that not only is this true in this named profession but it goes out to almost the entire populace of our day. Never has the world been so full of people who have failed to grow up morally, spiritually, intellectually, and culturally.
ROCK-ROLL AGE
Today we are in the midst of a “rock and roll” age. The very fact that this has come upon us speaks for itself that we are lacking something emotionally. This lack of emotional maturity shows itself in many other areas. People today walk about with their nerves on edge. Never has there been so many people who can’t stand this or can’t stand that. Everything works on their nerves. Somewhere down the line we must grow up emotionally.
A few days ago, I saw where many of our leading colleges as of last year were having “panty raids.” What’s behind all of this but the fact that there are among us those who have failed to grow up. They are looking for the thrills of life that normal life does not afford them. Somewhere in the overall pattern of life there must be a reawakening of life that will lead us to the higher and nobler things of life.
MARKED DIFFERENCE
As I move about, I have certain fears about this whole thing called life. It would not be so tragic if it were limited to the ones of us who have failed to be exposed to the higher things of life, but the marked difference that was so evident 20 or 25 years ago is gone now. This is not only true intellectually, but has moved into every area of our activity. No longer can you tell the intellectuals from the non-intellectuals, the morally good from the morally bad, the Christians from the sinners.
We have all lost our identity and it would be hard to differentiate one from the other. If our world is ever going to be the type of world it should be, there must be a line of demarcation.
There should be something about the educated man that would make a marked difference in him and the man who has been denied this opportunity, something about the man who has been morally good and one who has not, and there should be something about the Christian man that makes a difference between him and his sinful brother. If all of us are going to be in the same boat, none of us will be in a position to help the other. It is not beyond the power of any of us to be a source of inspiration to our weaker brethren. The challenge which is before all of us today is for us to be al that our position in life or training or conviction demands of us. I know that sometime ago one great thinker said there is so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that it behooves none of us to talk about the rest of us. But I have always interpreted that to mean just this: assuming that it is true, we should try to limit those bad elements in our lives that no one will ever detect them. I think that is the challenge before all of us.
Yet, as I look about me, I see that there are so many of us trying to be “regular fellows” in all areas of our activities that we lose faith with those things that are most meaningful, and we find ourselves becoming fools.I hold that this is not necessary. We need not be fools for anyone. The noblest thing a man can do is to find those virtues in life that will make him a respected citizen of this world and, come what may, hold on to the end. In the final analysis, the world is not waiting for a “regular fellow;” it is waiting for a man who has the answer to all of the turmoil, strife and embitterment through which the average person goes on his sojourn down here.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 