Editorial July 29, 1972 Issue

Prove a Little More Each Day

Naomi Price

A mile is not far to walk, but when it is to be covered on a tightrope slung high above a dam, for most people it might just as well be as far as to Mars, so formidable would the journey seem. Yet the celebrated French tightrope walker, Henry Rechatin, accomplished it in 1965, presumably after years of dedicated practice, at Saint-Étienne in two hours and fifteen minutes.

What is the object of such a feat? Does it have value? We think it does. When one human being achieves something that is generally believed physically impossible, it immediately opens the door of limitation so that others quite soon after do the same— that is to say, they do if they are willing to make the determined mental effort required to develop in themselves the necessary strength and ability to triumph.

And it does require strong effort on the part of humanity to overcome the fears and limitations imposed by finite mortal belief, not only in the area of physical accomplishments but of mental ones as well. Mary Baker Eddy points out in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "We are all capable of more than we do."^{Science and Health, p. 89;} But people often accept suggestions of limited ability and capacity too easily. They may not even stop to think before insisting, "Oh, I couldn't do that! I can't speak in public," or, "I am too stupid with figures—I can't even add," or, "Even to look out of a window makes me afraid of falling." They just assume that because they never have, they never will be able to make a speech, to keep accounts, or climb a mountain.