<BR>I used to think I should be thwarted in my desire to do something<BR>useful. But I have found out that though the ways in which I can make<BR>myself useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless. . . . I long<BR>to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to<BR>accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. It is my<BR>service to think how I can best fulfill the demands that each day makes<BR>upon me, and to rejoice that others can do what I cannot. Green, the<BR>historian, tells us that the world is moved along, not only by the<BR>mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny<BR>pushes of each honest worker; and that thought alone suffices to guide<BR>me in this dark world and wide. I love the good that others do; for<BR>their activity is an assurance that whether I can help or not, the true<BR>and the good will stand sure.<P>If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should<BR>be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my<BR>eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and<BR>day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey<BR>to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to<BR>others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical<BR>deprivation.<P>I remember an hour when I was discouraged and ready to falter. For days<BR>I had been pegging away at a task which refused to get itself<BR>accomplished. In the midst of my perplexity I read an essay of Stevenson<BR>which made me feel as if I had been "outing" in the sunshine, instead of<BR>losing heart over a difficult task, I tried again with new courage and<BR>succeeded almost before I knew it. . . .<P>Read Schopenhauer and Omar, and you will grow to find the world as<BR>hollow as they find it. Read Green's history of England, and the world<BR>is peopled with heroes. I never knew why Green's history thrilled me<BR>with the vigor of romance until I read his biography. Then I learned how<BR>his quick imagination transfigured the hard, bare facts of life into new<BR>and living dreams. When he and his wife were too poor to have a fire, he<BR>would sit before the unlit hearth and pretend that it was ablaze. "Drill<BR>your thoughts," he said; "shut out the gloomy and call in the bright.<BR>There is more wisdom in shutting one's eyes than your copybook<BR>philosophers will allow."<P>Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done<BR>without hope.<P>Written by Helen Keller
