Time To Get Up!

“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.” I’m sure many of you remember that iconic commercial. But have you seen the recent magazine cartoon that parodies the famous ad? In the cartoon, a depressed-looking man is pictured lying on the floor, wearing an alarm device around his neck. Above the man is this headline:

Introducing Life Alarm . . . For people who have fallen and DON’T WANT to get up!

Sadly, there are persons everywhere who have that empty, “I don’t want to get up” feeling about life. They characterize our Age as hopeless. They say that if war and poverty don’t wipe out modern civilization, then global warming will and, anyway, so what? Aren’t we all doomed to extinction the second we are born?

This age of ours has been called many things including the “Age of Despair.” And certainly if we read some of the poems, the plays, the novels, the philosophical works and the music of our time —…