Bloggers Note from Serena Ebhardt of EbzB Productions: This is why I wrote In One Era and Out The Other…

I Can Turn Myself Into a Shouting Optimist Within An Hour – Great Advice From Mr. Roger W. Babson

Roger W. Babson, phot courtesy of Babson College

“When I find myself depressed over present conditions, I can,
within one hour, banish worry an turn myself into a shouting optimist.
Here is how I do it.  I enter my library, close my eyes, and walk to
certain shelves containing only books on history.  With my eyes still
shut, I reach for a book, not knowing whether I am picking up Prescott’s
Conquest of Mexico or Suetonius’ Lives of Twelve Caesars. 
With my eyes still closed, I open the book at random.  Then I open my
eyes and read for an hour; and the more I read the more sharply I
realize that he world has always been tottering on the brink.  The pages
of history fairly shriek with tragic tales of war, famine, poverty,
pestilence, and man’s inhumanity to man.  After reading history for an
hour, I realize that bad as conditions are now, they are infinitely
better than they use to be.  This enables me to see and face my present
troubles in their proper perspective as well as to realize that the
world as a whole is constantly growing better.”