Page:The Art of Helping People Out of Trouble (1924).pdf/37

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pass and where there are multitudes of human contacts.

Truly the adjustment to work is enough alone to call forth all the skill that a man possesses. What renders it and every other adjustment vastly more difficult is the presence at the same time of other problems. It is not possible for him to concentrate upon work to the exclusion of everything else; for while he is making this adaptation he may also be confronted with the adjustment to illness or with the necessity of helping his son to meet the problems of adolescence. The adjustment to widowhood may be accompanied by a sudden change in income. The adaptations to single life and to unemployment may appear together. The adjustment to marriage may include the adjustment to parenthood.

Rarely do adjustments come alone and rarely do they concern only one person. Usually a number of people are affected. In marriage, man and woman and the relatives of both may be involved: in independence, the woman and her family; in work, employer and employee; in sickness, the invalid and the household.

The problem is always complex, and it is universal. All about us the struggle is going on, and