| PAGE | |
| How the Rent Was Paid | [7] |
| The World’s Injustice | [15] |
| Betraying One’s Confidence | [24] |
| Developing A Consciousness | [33] |
| A Blessed Privilege | [40] |
| The Telephone Bell | [49] |
HOW THE RENT WAS PAID
She was about 25, well dressed, neat in appearance, rather good looking, quite intelligent, and a teacher of art. The distressed look upon her face when she entered my office showed that she was undergoing terrible suffering of some kind. She greeted me with the inquiry, “What in the world will I do, doctor?”
I told her the first thing she should do was to sit down, just get quiet a little and “let go,” then tell me all about it.
I talked with her about unimportant matters for a few minutes until I saw that she had grown somewhat calm and quiet in the harmonious atmosphere of my office and then asked her what her trouble was.
She said that it was money or rather the lack of it. I told her there was plenty of money in the world and a great abundance of it right here in New York. “Yes,” she said, “but I can’t get hold of it unless I pawn my diamond ring. I had to pawn one of them last month in order to pay my rent and will have to pawn my last one in order to pay my rent this month and then what shall I do?”
“Why pawn your ring now?” I asked.
“I haven’t pawned it yet,” she said, “but I will have to do so.”
“You may not as yet have gone through the physical act of taking your ring to the pawn shop and leaving it there,” I replied, “but you have pawned it already in your consciousness, your thought world, your imagination, and unless you at once stop pawning it there you will soon take it to the pawn shop. But should it be necessary for you to go to the pawn shop, why worry about it? Why not look upon your rings as cash in the bank, to be drawn upon when necessary. We sometimes draw our bank balance down to the last dollar but that does not worry us for we know we will deposit some more right away, and when we do KNOW it we always get the money to deposit. Why not take this same attitude towards the ring you have in pawn?”
“Again, this is only Friday and the first of the month does not come until next Monday,” I said. “Supposing you did not pay your rent on that day your landlord would not put you out for you have always been a good tenant and paid your rent heretofore. Even though he was to serve a dispossess notice on you you have five days in which to pay or move, so that you have at least a week from to-day, under the most unfavorable conditions, in which to get your rent money.”