Article January 21, 1928 Issue

Overcoming a Handicap

MAUDE E. BEE

"HANDICAP " is defined as "an extra burden placed upon . . . a superior competitor in favor of an inferior, in order to make their chances more equal." We may question this definition when applied metaphysically; for as we look about us, we see that everyone is laboring under some sort of handicap or burden, and we do not all claim to be superior competitors. But competing in or running courageously life's race, the effort to win in spite of our burdens brings an overcoming which tends to excellence.

If we stop to look at and examine a handicap, wondering where it came from, why we have to carry it, how long it will be before we can drop it, anxious and fearful as to our ability to get anywhere with such a burden, we are apt to become filled with self-pity and discouragement. As we nurse hurt pride, vanity, and sensitiveness, and allow resentment and rebellion to possess us, we grow more self-centered and selfish, and proportionably lessen our chances of making any headway in the race and overcoming the handicap.

It is only by a determined "right about" that we shall win—by a realization that a handicap, like all other enemies, is a foe to be met, wrestled with, and overthrown. Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 569), "Every mortal at some period, here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed to God." Thus, it is not in accepting a handicap, but in overcoming it, that we grow.

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