Editorial October 8, 1966 Issue

How Do We Rank Our Neighbor?

Carl J. Welz

One day when I was in the Air Force, I went to an after-work party; and as I walked into the room, a lieutenant was telling a joke. He had the attention of the other officers, all right, but it wasn't a very good joke, and when he finished, there was a little laughter, but not much. In about five minutes the General arrived. As soon as he had his refreshments in hand, he began to tell a story, and it was the same one the lieutenant had told. The men hung on his every word, and when the General gave the punch line, the laughter was deafening. It was a matter of rank.

But how do we rank our neighbor? Are we interested in him? Do we really care about the qualities he expresses? The answers to these questions bear heavily on our ability to get along with others. In fact, they have much to do with our success in life. In business, the successful executive is the one who can see the possibilities and bring out the potential in an employee. In the theater, the successful actor is the one who can sense the qualities an audience responds to and addresses himself to them. In marriage, the successful husband or wife is the one who can lift his partner up, help him to find himself and to realize the brightness of his talents. And the successful parent is the one who can unfold in his child the capacities he naturally has.

Christian Science helps us to be successful in every field of human life. It does this on the basis of the Biblical commandments, given by Moses and stressed by Christ Jesus, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart . . . and thy neighbour as thyself." ^{Luke 10:27;} These commandments may seem confusing to us when we are trying to get along with someone we think of as impossible. But with Christian Science we learn to see the evil in a person as unreal and to prove that it is unreal. Then we can see what is real; and it is always worth seeing.