University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

Page 11 text:

OCTOBER 1939 continual case of dyspepsia. If he can ' t get mad enough at his neighbors to give him employment for his ugly disposition, he gets together a little army of dissatisfied malcontents to bolster up his limited field of hatred. Then political killing and con- quest only add to his conviction that the world is against him and he determines to annihilate practically everybody. We ' re not saying all this because we ' ve decide this is Utopia after all. Nor are we propagandizing for the privileged classes trying to keep the underprivileged quiet and satisfied. We ' re pretty certain we belong to the latter group anyway. But we do think that a lot of people are missing a lot of good things. They ' re missing them because they won ' t see them. It doesn ' t even take searching just a little more concentrated focus of the light of the body which is the eye. They ' re missing the cheerful brightness of the early-morning sun and the calm midnight brilliance of the Pleiades. They ' re missing the delighted curiosity of a blue-eyed child and the proud look of the fourteen-year-old as he gives up his seat in the street- car. They ' ve forgotten other people and other things outside themselves. Putting themselves in the center of vision has blotted out a great many far more beautiful things things that might brighten up the whole length of the day. It isn ' t particularly anemic or sissified to talk about such things. It ' s simply appreciating the good things around us. Life, after all, is mostly a question of emphasis. We can let the disappointing, bitter feelings predominate or else we can keep track of the other kind. We can pull a Scrooge and grumble all day long, or we can do ourselves some real good by dropping the weight of that sort of thing. That ' s more than practicing hazy Optimism about the future. It ' s simply concentrating on the good things we ' ve already seen and being glad, after all. that such things are possible. The idea is worth the trouble in a purely pragmatic way. as any psychologist will be glad enough to tell you. A person con- scious of the good things, aware of the beautiful things, is more likely to make good use of them. A person lightened of the load of doubts and fears by his concentration on constructive ideals, is a better worker and a happier man. There ' s no doubt at all about that. We ' re putting out a plea, you see, in our fumbling way, for a little more of that simple thing called gratitude. We ' re all fortunate in some ways in a lot of ways. If today is going wrong, yesterday was better and tomorrow is likely to be. We ' ve got a pretty wonderful country to live in and a pretty wonder- ful standard of living and a pretty wonderful school to go to. And whether we express our gratitude to the friend across the hall or say it directly to God, doesn ' t much matter. The important thing, for our own sakes, is to register our apprecia- tion now and then. And after all, come to think about it, the Pilgrims didn ' t have a lot more blessings to get excited about than we have. Ed Garich ' s coverage of boys ' rush week is nothing to sniff at, either. And note those cheer- leader pictures of his on page 59, plus the action shot of Sullivant go- ing over for a touchdown (p. 20) . We don ' t even need to call your attention to Andy Darling ' s draw- ings: they speak for themselves. Here ' s a fellow that can hear an idea, get it, and draw it in prac- tically the same hreath. He ' s re- sponsible for all the column cap- tions, for the pioneer picture, and for that remarkable drawing of the Chancellor. . . . We ' re con- siderably indebted to Don Fitz- gerald, too, for that poignant car- toon on page 36 and to Betsy Dodge for the flustered rushee (p. 33). Frieda Cowles has done a top- notch job of uniting statistical and anecdotal data in her fast-moving review of historical highlights (p. 16) . There ' s an almost unlimited field of interesting details about K.U., contemporary or otherwise, which we mean to exploit further. Agnes Mumert contributes several neatly-handled sidelights in the first edition of a new feature (see page 56) . Do you know any in- teresting stories along such lines? We hope you enjoy our big fresh- man section, including the ob- lique treatment of rush weeks thanks to Betty Coulson, Nancy Kesler, and Bob Hedges for their revealing comments. The pledge pictures are back there somewhere, too or were you interested? For excellence in writing, we further commend Harry Hill ' s Kansan story, Jay Simon ' s article on Gwinn Henry ' s past and present, and Jim Bell ' s notes on spring sports. For importance and time- liness we want to mention the articles on housing and on the air school, by Carter Butler and Mau- rice Jackson, respectively. For beauty of expression, finally, read Gene Ricketts ' descriptive lines on Spooner-Thayer Museum. We think they ' re swell. Editors RICHARD I. rr. . Business Manager: CHAD CASE

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It began in many different ways for many different people. . . . The independent man ' s worries usually began with : How to get there? Even if his thumb was success- ful, he had to worry about getting a job. . . . The sorority girls ' worries began with rushee lists . . . and housecleaning! . . . All of us had to struggle through regis- tration. . . . One bright fellow used a type- writer to fill out the blanks. . . . And all of us, especially fraternity men, worn out from rush week, gravitated toward the jelly joints to slump and bull and drop nickels in the new at-your-elbow nickelodeon. . . . We marveled at the discovery of long- needed street-markers on Law rence street corners. . . . Altogether too many of us went to the opening varsity . . . we paid our fees and bought our Jayhawkers . . . and started to school. In the meantime, too, we managed to get through that inexplicable, indescribable, unpredictable ordeal called enrollment . . . waiting in line . . . consulting half-heart- edly with advisers . . . being told politely but emphatically by Dean Lawson that we can ' t do that . . . going home with schedule we hadn ' t planned on at all . . . but philosophically determined to learn something or other anyhow. (Photos by Art Wolj and Ed Garich)