Have you ever been tantalised by a tall dark member of our Barnardo family, who dangles a pound note between your finger and thumb and invites you to keep it if you can grab it when he lets it fall? I can' never resist having a go, and still hope one day an inspired anticipation will cause me to grab at the very moment of release. What is the secret that gives him confidence that he will be able to return the note to his wallet when the fun is over? I'll tell you it's a matter of your personal equation. You didn't know you had one? You'd rather have the pound note? Hard luck!

Well, try and work this out. Your personal equation is the time which elapses between the moment when your eyes see the paper begin to move and the moment when this message has been transmitted to your brain and your brain has sent a message to the muscles of your hand to close the gap between your finger and thumb. By this time you've had it, chum two hundred and forty stivers have nearly hit the deck!

Some of us could do with a much longer equation. How often do we wish we hadn't been so hasty! We suffer a disappointment, or someone does something which annoys us; before we have given ourselves time to reflect, our anger takes possession of us and we strike the blow or let slip the offensive word. Afterwards we are sorry, even if we don't admit it. Some people try to show they are grown up by smoking or swearing; some by becoming stuffy, conceited and pompous; but the acid test is whether you have formed a strong habit of self-control or are still at the mercy of your childish feelings of greed, jealousy and anger. The first step towards man's estate is recognising these failings in ourselves; and the· next is to resolve to master them. You'll be getting somewhere when you can swallow that disappointment and say to yourself, in the words of the prophet, "Never mind, eh!"

R. F. WHEATLEY.

Reproduced from The Goldonian WINTER 1950