Demands: Reasonable and Unreasonable

HELEN R. CONROYD

Today's mood seems to be: don't ask, just demand. Countries make demands on other countries, citizens on their governments, labor on management and management on labor—the demands seem endless and often create an atmosphere of hostility and resentment.

This is how a Christian Scientist felt when a sense of weariness, a swollen jaw, and an aching ear didn't yield to the scientific truth she was declaring in an effort to unsee the belief that she was living and suffering in a mortal body. In frustration she heard herself exclaiming: "There are just too many demands being made on me—and some of them are unreasonable!"

At once she felt a sense of shame. There were two relatives at home needing her care. She wasn't rebelling against that. It was the demands for her constant presence even after their needs were met that she resented. Is not monopolizing anyone's time, thought, and consideration unreasonable? She thought it was. And was not this the cause of her unyielding physical problem?

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