page 4 - January 14, 1976 - North Shore News. eciare QUESTION: “i'm a welfare bum and proud cf it! Why should I work my butt off? These nine-to-five people must be out of their minds when they can cash in as easily as I am’’. Many a iime i nave talked like that to my friends or even to new acquaintances, and now that I am off welfare and holding down « pretty good job, I can look back and figure out why I talked like that when I didn’t believe a word I said. True, my lack of training and my general circumstances made me 2 good candidate for the welfare rolls, but my real reasons had to do with how I felt about myself, not how I felt about the system. I didn’t think I'd be able to make it out in the cold cruel world of competition. 1 was afraid to try because I. iust _ knew Pd fail. I didn’t want to | admit that to'anyone and so I went the other route and pretended that it was great being a welfare bum. I was so ashamed cf not making it, but scared to death of anyone finding out I was so scared, so I pretended it wes just a bed of roses bemg on welfare. Hundreds of times I read in the papers, or heard people talking about ‘‘wel- fare bums” and I just nearly died of shame inside and put - on my big act on the outside. For months I hassled myself about preparing myself in some way to get off welfare and earn my way. But I just. knew I couldn’t do it. A Do thy thing QUESTION: I saw an article the other day about things that are ‘in’ and things that are ‘out’. It made no reference to popular phrases ‘that are ‘in’ for a while and then ‘out’. For example, . “Ship”, the now generation”’ etc. Well, it seems to me that > “Do your thing’’ has iasted | longer than most of these fad phy and because of a Peftonal ‘interest in that particular phrase, I'm won- dering if you know how it started and how? " ‘TOTAL CARPET |. AND UPHOLSTERY CARE. Carpotizing. is fast, conven- : lent and effective. Carpetiz- ming guarantees no soaking, : 'no shrinkage, no matting or: Al f colour loas. Carpetizing doos| not require furniture removal y and your carpet can be used ‘ immodiatoly. PRESENT THIS AD FOR $5.00 ON ANY COST OF YOUR CARPET AND UPHOLSTERY | NEEDS. PHONE ANYTIME FOR A NO DELISATION EGTIMAT ’ not ret Then finaliy, i hepan te feel. good enough ‘about myself to make a real honest try. It worked well. enough for me to get a job and soon, a couple cf promotions. I think welfare is a marvellous thing for people who realiy need ii, ana cven for people like me who needed it until I began to find -something geod in myself. But I was never really a welfare bum. I hated it but Freelance Counsellor Hayden Stewart does private counselling as well as a great deal of group work. He can be centacted. at 261-6242 for Information and. appointments. Letters are Yalways welcome. Mail: them ‘to HAYDEN STEWART, c/o the _ North Shore Shopper, 4202-1139 Lonsdale, North Van. STEWART: Can’ t tell you. But if you'll put up with one word change in the phrase, I can tell you that it was used as far back as the middle seventeen hundreds! ‘Here’s . a’ quote from a poem by. Richard Watson Dixon who wrote in the 1700s. It doesn’t seem to have had a title, but these four lines will interest you: Go thy way, all things say Thou hast thy way to go, Thou hast thy day to live: Thou hast thy need of thee. to make in the hearts of others; Do thy thing; yes, slake the world’s great thirst. for yet another man! lly p rou pretend ded it was great so I wouldn’t have to he truthful about my fears. Pi bet there are hundreds ‘of people like me who talk big about the lovely gravy of welfare even while they feel so ashamed of needing it. And PH alse bet not many peeple really accept welfare and feel good about it [unless they have legitimate reasons.] STEWART: Thank you for had! Of course, what you found that made it possible was simply more of your real self. I suppose you had it ail the time. And what you had all the time (and are finding yours! hither | Alexander ? QUESTION: Haw cama you wae get a picture at the iop of your column and. George . Alexander just has a. litle ‘faked drawing? . e STEWART: Ssshhh! We were hoping no one would ask questions about G.A. because we are trying to give him a chance to ‘rehabilitate himseif in protected-anony-: mity. =, You see he is a former CIA agent who got hooked on heroin and has three wives. The authorities of nine countries are looking for him, but we feel that he deserves a chance. Don’t you think — that; proves that newspapers have a heart? George Alexander isn’t even his real’: name. He is really Georgi Alexandroff but we have promised not to let ' the secret out. Please d-7't tell.a soul. Good old Ge. ‘—-,. pardon’ me -— George needs all the help we can give him. Don’t you agree? (All of the above is not true, of course. He is really Karen Magnusson). Halr Removal can be hazar- dous unless done by an expert. 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