Philosophy for getting along with People
 1950

1. Accepting the fact that one has to get along with people. Nobody is happy who is constantly at war with relatives, neighbors, friends or associates at work. If one battles with in-laws, ones husband is affected unfavorable, whether or not he admits it. Certainly no one who fights her own family is ever happy. Getting along with people is essential to peace of mind.

2. Realizing that we can't change other people or make them do thing our way. Huckleberry Finn in speaking of his difficulties with the two strange characters who join him and run away slaves in the woods, says, "If I never learnt nothing out of Pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their own way.
3. Making an honest effort to understand people who hive you trouble, once you do this you move out the realm of feeling and into the realm of ideas. You stop thinking with your glands and use your brain.

4. Conscisously disciplining oneself to keep out of quarrels thus attaining an attitude of detatachment. This does not mean retreating into oneself and becoming a silent martyr and harding one heart and telling oneself one does not care, that way lies unhappiness. It means getting above the fight. This takes skill and strength but both can be acquired. The first step is to ask oneself whether all this turmoil is really important. Whether it has ever accomplished anything. Most adults can remember weeks, maybe months wasted in worring over criticisims that didn't need to have bearing on their actions in fretting because others did not share our interests and never would.

5. Detachment is a quality of maturity. We can grow up over night but we can keep pluging along in the direction of growth. The near one is to detachment the more nearly is one free to enjoy this life, unhurt by harsh contact with others.

6. "Love one another as I have loved you."