Editorial September 23, 1967 Issue

Single People Are Happy Too

Helen Wood Bauman

So much is said about marriage and the joys of personal family life that one might almost conclude that a single person cannot find happiness. But this assumption is ridiculous. A feeling of completeness is essential to a satisfactory life, but this is true whether a person is married or not. The big question is how to attain true completeness. Christian Science shows that this comes only from understanding and living the truth that man is spiritual, an idea in divine Mind, God, and that he reflects all that constitutes Mind.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mary Baker Eddy, according to her interpretation of the Scriptural allegory of Eden, contrasts mortal man, who dwells in and cultivates the material body, with spiritual man, who dwells in Mind. She concludes, "Man is God's reflection, needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete."^{Science and Health, p. 527;}

The single person who is happily demonstrating spiritual selfhood is not likely to be disturbed by the stigma that some mortals would place on persons—especially women—who have remained single. Other single persons, those who do respond to the stigma, feel left out in life because they place happiness on too personal a basis. Right human relationships can always be attained through the demonstration of God's will, which is to give each individual what is best for his spiritual development. But even in marriage a sense of completeness must be founded on an individual and spiritual basis.

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