August 15

August 15 – AM

Page 107, To Wives, Chapter 8

How could men who loved their wives and children be so unthinking, so callous, so cruel?  There could be no love in such persons, we thought.  And just as we were being convinced of their heartlessness, they would surprise us with fresh resolves and new attentions.  For a while they would be their old sweet selves, only to dash the new structure of affection to pieces once more.  Asked why they commenced to drink again, they would reply with some silly excuse, or none.  It was so baffling, so heartbreaking.  Could we have been so mistaken in the men we married?  When drinking, they were strangers.  Sometimes they were so inaccessible that it seemed as though a great wall had been built around them.

August 15 – PM

Page 62, How It Works, Chapter 5

Selfishness—self-centeredness!  That, we think, is the root of our troubles.  Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.  Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt.