Article April 29, 1939 Issue

The Track Meet

[Written Especially for Young People]

FRANCES R. CORNER

The writer was an interested spectator one day at a track meet held on the grounds of a large middle-western university. As each event took place, she noted with pleasure the control which the participants were exercising over their bodies. The pole-vaulting event seemed particularly impressive, and the writer noticed, as each athlete ran swiftly and lightly, pole in hand, to the proper place at which to begin the vault, that there was never the slightest hesitancy at attempting it, no matter how high the bar had been placed.

What a lesson for the student of Christian Science, she thought, as she likened the vaulter's attempt to clear the bar to the mental attitude of the Christian Scientist in endeavoring to solve a problem—whether a physical, moral, social, or financial one. The athlete, if he had hesitated an instant before leaping, or worse still, had become afraid at that point to attempt it at all, would have made a complete failure. Similarly, fear, indecision, or hesitancy would claim to prevent us, as Christian Scientists, from solving our problems.

An even clearer illustration came to the writer's thought during the hurdle races, for the same courageous approach seen in the pole vaulting was evident here. A hurdle race, as most boys and girls know, consists of running along a certain course and leaping over a succession of obstacles on the way. It was noticed that the racers, having jumped the first bar successfully, did not hesitate at the second, or the third, and so on, but took each one in their stride, pressing eagerly on until the race was run.

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