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OUR LIFE M O N T H L Y , published by U krainian N atio n al Women's League o f A m erica VOL. XXXVIII JULY-AUGUST 1981 No. 7 E D IT O R IA L DO WE KNOW HOW TO RELAX? For most of us, the summer months are a time for rest and relaxation. They are a time when one is able to renew one’s strength for work and study. It would seem that the best way of spending one’s vacation, one’s time of rest would be total relaxation: enjoying the sun’s rays at the beach, listening to the sound of waves breaking, listening to the babbling of a brook. Maybe occasionally going out to meet the waves or to float in a crystal clear lake. But rest is needed not only by our bodies but also by our minds and souls. No matter how relaxing one’s vacation might be, it is always far easier to rest our bodies than it is to rest our minds and souls. Resting mentally and spiritually is more complex: it requires a special knowledge and ability. It is especially difficult to chase away irritating thoughts and troubles. Often these troubles are small and unimportant, yet they constantly remain with us, circling as a nestful of angry wasps. They stay with us constantly, following us on our vacation, on a hike, to the beach, to the mountains. It requires a special ability to control thoughts and feelings, to be able to put them aside. To be able to color one’s gray troubles with fresh green hope. The know-how of ruling over one's thoughts, of placing them where you want them, is not easily acquired. It is developed over time and through practice, by consider ing that which is truly positive and worthwhile. By dif ferentiating between that which is important and that which is small and by not letting the small overcome the larger, by coloring everything with hope. By dreaming and wishing for the beautiful and forgetting the ugly. This know-how will relieve one’s personal troubles and will also help in the society by not letting the small problems overshadow that which is more important. So leave your troubles on this side. Rest not only physically, but also spiritually and mentally. T ra n s la te d a n d c o n d e n s e d b y M. J a r y m o w y c z FROM THE SPEECH DELIVERED BY ULANA LIUBOVYCH AT THE 19TH CONVENTION OF UNWLA, PHILADELPHIA, PA. MAY 24, 1981 It seems as if it were only yesterday that we were reading the works of science fiction writers about trips to the moon, discoveries of strange new worlds. All, the creation of human fantasy and imagination. And now, with the flick of the T. V. ”On” button we, matter of factly, watch an astronaut float out of his space ship and hover in the stratosphere. Man has mastered the forces of gravity; or rather to move and work in spite of them. From far off space the voice of the astronaut sends greetings to earth, but the control of his ship is in the hands of the scientists here on earth. We live in the Century of Technology. The phenomenal technological achievements have over whelmed man so that the initial aims of these disco- reries have been forgotten along the way. Technology has become an end in itself. It rules all phases of life; space exploration, business developments, the military, arming, indeed our daily existence from the cradle to the grave. Man has become a prisoner of his own inventions. He has lost contact with his soul. Technology has become the essence of our existence. We are well fed, clothed, entertained and passive. We are losing the capacity to feel. The computer has become the chief competitor of the human mind. It’s impact is everywhere, even in the creative arts. In ’’Brave New World”, Aldous Huxley speaks of the new being, half-robot, half-man, mechanical, unfeeling, not born but produced, void of emotion and responsi bility. In this new world a small group of thinking, feeling individuals has to be isolated so as not to contaminate the others with their dangerous ideas. How close are we to this ’’Brave New World?” We already have reached the point where everything is measured in terms of speed and quantity rather than in terms of quality, human dignity, intergrity. Has our spiritual progress kept apace with our technological victories? Can we preserve what is human,essential and meaningful to us? Yes, because we possess the God-given gift of Free Will! But it is an awesome gift, because with it, free will carries the moral burden of responsibility. Responsi bility for our actions, our lives, our families, our people, our homeland. Free will is our only defense against the encroachement of the manipulations of this technolo gical world. Even in totalitarian regimes, such as USSR, where technology is highly developed but frighteningly misused for the purposes of total control and spiritual and physical destruction, there are those whose strength of will and sense of responsibility persevere. Their sense of free will is such that for their thoughts ’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ", ЛИПЕНЬ-СЕРПЕНЬ 1981 21
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