Good evening Listeners:
During my present visit to Melbourne I have received thousands of letters from radio listeners, and I well recollect that during my last season at the King’s Theatre, just two years ago, I perused over 9,000 letters, and oft repeated question was “Dante, what is your philosophy of life?” This question is presumably to the fact that many know that I have travelled through every part of the world, from the capital cities to the remotest corners, and have come in contact with every nationality on the face of the globe, with humanity in all its varying types. I have seen the entire world by day and by night, and from the parlor to the kitchen. Therefore I have had the opportunity of studying human nature at first hand by personal contact, and not out of books; for I read very little.
My first visit to Melbourne, and this may surprise some listeners, was 24 yrs. ago, and when my dear friend Frank Talbot, now proprietor of the Athenaeum Theatre, was then managing famous artists, such as Clara Butt, John McCormick, Harry Lauder and others. It was through his enterprise that I had the great privilege of meeting the lovely people of Australia, and secondly to form a friendship with this charming man that has never been broken, and by friendship, I mean something deeper than just a friend. I believe that all of us should seek in our early lives to find this special contract of friendship, and make it everlasting. It gives you something to look forward to – something to respect, and something to work for.
Since my first visit to Australia I have been constantly in harness, visiting one country and then another. Meeting good people, and so-called bad people. As I see life, the so-called bad people are classified in this category in the minds of their neighbours, and unfortunately, sometimes in their own minds, through malice, prejudice, jealousy or selfishness. As I see the world today, selfishness is its worst enemy, and I believe our greatest sin. When we leave it we take nothing with us, but we all leave behind a painting that we have made ourselves.
When we were born we did not ask to come into the world. We were given a canvas, a palette, brush and paint. We were automatically invited to paint our own picture of the world with all its beauty and surroundings. Unfortunately some of us through poverty, in most cases caused by the selfishness of others, or adverse circumstances receive a bad brush, others insufficient color and some, a poor quality of canvas unfit to paint upon. Others a palette, but too small, and hence the colors of life often run together and spoil the picture. Then there are those who receive a splendid brush, vivid colors, and a high grade canvas that is far too large for their imagination, and a palette that is too big to be useful. The result, they cannot paint the picture. This is not intended as a lecture, merely an attempt at my portrayal of life by comparison to a painting.
So tonight I will endeavour to picture life as painted on the canvas of the soul. The clouds in the picture representing disappointment and sadness, the flowers in the garden representing sympathy, and the sunshine the crowning glory of achievement, which I shall call result.
The result of one’s life is the painting that we leave behind. Therefore do not smear your canvas. Do not allow your colors to run together. As you go through life, visualize your painting, it will sometimes be crude and perhaps drab at the beginning, but as you grow older, new stars rise in the heaven of life, and color will accumulate. Then the sun rises, and we are enabled to add richer tones to our canvas of life.
Sometimes our experiences enable us to add a beautiful flower to the canvas, which might be called the FLOWER OF LOVE, and at other times we may see only shrubbery that is drab. But that does not have to be painted into our picture. But while painting these flowers if you can pluck them from the canvas in reality, and scatter them amongst the living as you go through life, you may make some poor soul happy in doing so. And don’t forget to water your garden with friendship and sprinkle it with love. Should one of your flowers fade, do not brush it out, but let it remain as a memory – a beautiful thought – and paint in another just as beautiful.
The picture, however, is never finished until we lay down the brush and palette, but in the meantime it should be framed. If someone should break the frame, the picture of your soul should not be altered in the slightest degree. The original inspiration will remain so long and allow no one to damage or destroy the canvas. I have had many frames broken in my canvas of life. Sometimes I have reframed them with a simple inexpensive frame, and I have said to myself, “This is not a bad picture, and deserves a better frame.” I might call that frame “the tie of friendship.” So I have lived to provide a new frame through loyal friends who have been more fitted and worthy of the painting. Then I have looked and said, “This painting is the result of life.”
We all make mistakes, but do not go through life fearful of making them. I have found with every mistake comes one achievement. If as you are painting someone should bump your arm and spoil your stroke, do not get discouraged. Cover it up but keep on painting. Do not allow anyone to spoil your canvas, which in my painting of life happens to be the soul. The frame may be broken many times through no fault of yours, but rest assured that it can always be replaced so long as the canvas of life remains intact, and remember result is the thing that matters.
So our duty is to keep on painting. Make the pictures as beautiful as possible, skip the clouds and the shrubbery, and bear down heavy on the flowers and sunshine as we pass through life. When we pass out, the picture we have painted will live on, and don’t forget to “Keep smiling” as you do it.