Article June 7, 1969 Issue

My Walden

[For young adults]

HAMILTON KILLEN, JR.

A young person may find himself running an isolated VISTA project, going alone to a great city for a first job, or locating in unheard-of places far from his usual haunts. He leaves behind him the familiarity of old friends and family and the relative ease of making social contacts in college for a situation where faces and surroundings may seem cold and unfamiliar. At times he can feel lonely, isolated, ready to give it all up.

Yet there is every reason to continue a right project! "Remember," writes Mrs. Eddy, "thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 149, 150;} No one need feel alone in a new situation. Man is never isolated from Truth and Love. If an individual's project is a worthy one, he can find fulfillment right where he is.

I learned this after accepting a job teaching in a small, isolated American college. I had looked forward to an unpretentious existence: rural simplicity, intellectual stimulation with down-to-earth colleagues. This would be my own Walden Pond!

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