barrier between them.

Nadia's protests make plain her want of patience, or of emotional maturity. We do not solve our problems or attain our wishes without exerting the utmost effort and working with sincerity, tenderness, and sacrifice. How can she wish her husband not to be absorbed in his work while the two of them groan under debt? She blames circumstances and the husband, when she alone, by her resolution and her patience, can set things right and scatter the doubts.

I take you out now, Madam, from the home into society, to listen to another study, in "Reader's Digest," on extremism and its incompatibility with the spirit of this age. You are with the authoress, so hear her tell you: "Mr. Samir arrived at his appointment exactly on time, which made me remark the obser-vance of precision in his regimen; from his appearance I imagined him one of the churchmen of the Middle Ages, not a young man of twenty-five. He raised searching glances toward me, then sat down demurely and answered my ques-tion by saying: 'By God, I don't know what to tell you! It was not my idea to come here; it was my wife who prompted it, because she believes there is something wrong with my mind.' My position was not an easy one before a man so hard to deal with, so I asked him inquiringly: 'What does your wife mean by that?' He thought a moment and then went on: 'We quarreled last week, because she believes I am fanatical about my opinions. I had been discussing with a friend of mine the problem of the workers and their strike, of which I do not approve, since it does not succeed in improving the situation; my friend opposed me, so I left him arguing with my wife and went off to listen to the wireless.

"'My philosophy of life rests on strictness, self-control, and good manners; I try to live within these rules and not overstep them, avoiding whoever opposes me.'"

He is a model young man — and yet do not wonder at his

wife's rebellion, for life with a stubborn extremist, who tries to pull you onto his own path, is unbearable. We may be perfec-tionists ourselves, but we cannot impose perfectionism on others.

The extremist believes that this person or that idea is either good or bad, and that there is no middle ground between the two: either ugliness or beauty, coarseness or delicacy, purity or crime — whereas in life we see a class of middling condition between exorbitant wealth and abject poverty. And the authoress asks you questions, expecting you to attend to them and to how far they bear on your conduct:

First: are you partial to a particular class of people? Second: does the sight of a disorderly house upset you? Third: do you

tell a person the truth knowing that it will wound his feelings? Fourth: do you brush off dust you imagine clinging to your dress? Fifth: does the company of a person who does not harmonize with your disposition annoy you?... Observe: if your answer to most of these questions is yes, then you lean toward extremism, even if you have not come near it, and this feeling grows stronger with the people of your own household. So try to overcome it; then broaden your perceptions and your thinking until it welcomes everything new, and accustom yourself to give-and-take in your conversations, your dealings, and your beliefs — your affairs will settle, and you will make those around you happy!