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CHAPTER 3:

Transcending Difficulties and Perplexities

“Man who man would be
Must rule the empire of himself; in it
Must be supreme, establishing his throne
On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy
Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.”
— Shelley.

“Have you missed in your aim? Well, the mark is still shining.
Did you faint in the race? Well, take breath for the next.”
— Ellu Wheelar Wilcose.

To suggest that any degree of blessedness may be extracted from difficulties and perplexities will
doubtless appear absurd to many; but truth is ever paradoxical, and the curses of the foolish are
the blessings of the wise. Difficulties arise in ignorance and weakness, and they call for the
attainment of knowledge and the acquisition of the strength.
As understanding is acquired by right living, difficulties become fewer, and perplexities
gradually fade away, like the perishable mists which they are.
Your difficulty is not contained, primarily, in the situation which gave rise to it, but in the
mental state with which you regard that situation and which you bring to bear upon it. That which
is difficult to a child presents no difficulty to the matured mind of the man; and that which to the
mind of an unintelligent man is surrounded with perplexity would afford no ground for perplexity
to an intelligent man.

To the untutored and undeveloped mind of the child how great, and apparently
insurmountable, appear the difficulties which are involved in the learning of some simple lesson.
How many anxious and laborious hours and days, or even months, its solution costs; and,
frequently, how many tears are shed in hopeless contemplation of the unmastered, and apparently
insurmountable, wall of difficulty! Yet the difficulty is in the ignorance of the child only, and its
conquest and solution is absolutely necessary for the development of intelligence and for the
ultimate welfare, happiness, and usefulness of the child.
Even so is it with the difficulties of life with which older children are confronted, and which it
is imperative, for their own growth and development, that they should solve and surmount; and
each difficulty solved means so much more experience gained, so much more insight and wisdom
acquired; it means a valuable lesson learned, with the added gladness and freedom of a task
successfully accomplished.
What is the real nature of a difficulty? Is it not a situation which is not fully grasped and
understood in all it bearings? As such, it calls for the development and exercise of a deeper insight
and broader intelligence than has hitherto been exercised. It is an urgent necessity calling forth