734. That Little Extra Effort

Affluent families sometimes find that a less affluent family has settled its sons and daughters far better than they could. At such moments, it dawns on them that they have been prudent, while in their own family everyone was casual. Experienced people explain it as, "What matters is the care given to the paise which can take care of a son's education at a professional college." A bright boy who passed in third class looking at another who passed in first class feels the same way and says, "His time was given to reading." Spirituality needs that little Extra Effort at cheerfulness and native goodness. The Spirit never fails to blossom in such an attitude.

Pollyanna, a girl of 8 years, became an orphan and was taken in by her aunt. The unmarried aunt was disappointed in love, rather had disappointed Dr. Chiltern who loved her, not because she had not loved him but because he had not risen to her expectations of courtship. She kept to her house and was considered unsociable. She assiduously kept her RULES, rules of etiquette. Her dead rules made her dry and lifeless. It was an English village where that stiffness and aloofness are a way of life. Pollyanna disregarded what the villagers were to her, and put up her personality of good cheer to greet them, call on them, bring them gifts, particularly gifts of love. Meeting an elderly man on the road, she greeted him, but he was rude. She persisted. One day he fell and broke his leg. Pollyanna helped him by calling the doctor. He apologised for his earlier rudeness and became friendly. He turned out to be the man who had loved her mother years before, but was disappointed in that love.  One lady who had been bed-ridden for long years won the reputation for asking for what was not given to her. Pollyanna visited her often and was a source of cheer to her.

Pollyanna was hit by a motorcar and the injury paralysed her legs. Every friend wanted to visit her but her aunt refused. Pollyanna insisted on seeing Dr. Chiltern, not her aunt's doctor. Every day presents, flowers, bouquets collected in good number outside her door. By this time, even the aunt had come to love Polly. It was a wonder to her that the whole village was in love with Polly. A new treatment for paralysis restored Polly's walking partially and her aunt, after 15 years, relented to smile on her old lover. The rude old man adopted an orphan to please Polly. At the wedding of her aunt, the whole village saw Polly walking with crutches, but her cheerfulness was undiminished. The naughty lady came out of bed to the wedding. The gloomy, grumpy village declared that Pollyanna had brought happiness to them.  Happiness is there in all of us. It responds to that Little Extra Effort to be pleasant at all times to all people. This is an age-old wisdom, not an age-old practice. However ossified the heart is, it readily opens to a touch of JOY. For the heart Joy is the Spirit in essence. Native cheerfulness is the birthright of the buried Spirit inside.