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Enthusiasm
by Commissioner Wesley
Harris
I
LIKE
ENTHUSIASTS! Dull eyed people who never get excited
about anything are a bit hard to take and make me want to
shake them like a bottle of medicine to see if that would make
them a bit more stimulating.
But enthusiasts!
They are a real tonic.
Of course the objects of people's enthusiasms are many
and varied ranging from stick insects to stamp collecting and
from cold baths to hot jazz.
Not all these grab me as the saying goes but I find the
enthusiasm they inspire is infectious.
The understanding of enthusiasm has varied.
In an ancient English churchyard someone had chiselled
an epitaph of an old parson's grave. It read: 'He was vicar of
this parish for forty years without showing the least sign of
enthusiasm'. In fairness to the deceased and the writer of the
epitaph it should be known t hat a meaning of the word
'enthusiasm' was not as it might be now 'energy which boils
over and runs down the side of the pot'. It could mean
'religious frenzy and fanaticism from which apparently, the
late cleric and his congregation were mercifully delivered.
I
have sometimes delivered
lectures to students in a training college and have
loved the zest with which many of them have prepared for their
chosen vocation.
I have hoped that the warm gulf stream of youthful enthusiasm
may reach into the chillier regions of middle and old age and
that they will be as keen on their work after many years
for, as Henry Thoreau said, “None are so old as those
who have outgrown enthusiasm.” The changing
nature of our society will mean that some people have
various jobs over the years but for any of them to be
meaningful; it will be necessary to generate the inner drive
of enthusiasm/ A
quitter never wins and a winner never quits.
Enthusiasm must be generated and balanced by
perseverance.
I read about a prospector who was looking for a vein of gold
in a remote location. Day after day he swung his pick
but finally, frustrated and angry he drove the tool
into the ground, grabbed the rest of his gear and went away,
Many years later the pick, now rusted with
the handle rotted was found a few metres from a rich
deposit of gold which might have been claimed if
enthusiasm had
not run out.
We live at a time when many people have become blasé, with
little enthusiasm for the rich values which underpin any great
society. For some
the shrug of a shoulder has become a characteristic gesture.
J. Seeley wrote, “No soul is pure that is not passionate.”' It
is a point to ponder. So is the entry on enthusiasm in the
Oxford Dictionary from which we learn that the word is derived
from ”ën theos” meaning possessed by God”.“As I look at the
world of nature with its infinite variety I find it easy to
think of God as the Divine Enthusiast Who would in turn
inspire us.
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