A Purposeful Life

If life is to be invested with meaning, it is essential that a target be set. And one should be absolutely certain of the worthwhile nature of this target. In pursuit of it, one must have the total support of one's conscience: it should permeate one's entire being, coursing through one's body just as blood runs through one's veins. It is by exercising his powers of concentration while setting his heart on a particular target that a human being becomes different from the animals. When one focuses upon an overarching purpose, one's life undergoes a drastic change. One becomes a completely different person. So total is one's absorption in one’s quest in life that one has no time for petty side issues. One pursues one’s goal with unswerving dedication, not stopping to rest until it is reached. Total Involvement Elias Howe (1819-1867) was born in Massachusetts, U.S.A. He died at the young age of 48. Although his life was short, his contribution to the world of clothes—that of the sewing machine—will always be remembered. The sewing machine invented by Elias Howe was at first utilized, not for sewing clothes, but for stitching shoes. The main breakthrough was the development of a lock-stitch by a shuttle carrying a lower thread and a needle carrying an upper thread which passes through a hole situated at the tip of the needle. For thousands of years, man had been accustomed to making a hole at the base of the needle. So, following the common practice, Elias Howe made the needle of his machine with a hole at the base, instead of at the tip as is now the case. The placement of an eyelet, simple as it may seem to us now,