1 10 3 https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/4475e984b963fb4a21d32e922cc06d62.pdf e8a2af1bd2e4495564ce624b04aa5255 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-037_A.mp3 [MUSIC PLAYING] Pitts Theology Library Emory University Our lesson is the eighth Psalm. Oh Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the Earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength because of Thine enemies that though mightest still the Enemy and the Avenger. When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than God and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the paths of the sea. Oh Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the Earth. [ORGAN MUSIC PLAYING] How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, oh God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with Thee. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. As a background for our thinking together about the freedom of the human spirit, will you hold in mind the song, which was read as our morning's lesson? Particularly the line which says, Thou hast made him but little lower than God. And then, these lines from a contemporary poet. Give me the courage to live, really live, not merely exist, live dangerously, scorning risk, live honestly, daring the truth, particularly the truth of myself, live resiliently, ever changing, evergrowing, ever adapting, enduring the pain of change as though 'twere the travel of birth. Give me the courage to live. Give me the strength to be free and to endure the burden of freedom and the loneliness of those without chains. Let me not be trapped by success, not by failure, nor pleasure, nor grief, nor by malice, nor praise, nor remorse. Give me the courage to go on, facing all that waits on the way, going eagerly, joyously on, and paying my way as I go without anger, or fear, or regret, spending my life to the full, head high, spirit winged like a god, on, on till the shadows draw close. Then, even when darkness shuts down and I go out alone as I came, naked and blind as I came, even then, gracious God, hear my prayer. Give me the courage to live. The lines which I select from this give me the strength to be free and to endure the burden of freedom and the loneliness of those without chains. Give me the strength to be free and to endure the burden of freedom and the loneliness of those without chains. Man is a space-binder and a time-binder. 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Pitts Theology Library Emory University As a space-binder, man is involved in a context of relationships. He is related to forces within his environment, and to individuals, and to systems, and to orders. And it is in this area that man experiences liberty, for he is involved with forces and powers that can define and determine his location, his movement often. These are external privileges, rights, granted to him or maybe taken away from him. This is the area in which man, the space binder, experiences liberty as distinguished from freedom. But man is also a time-binder. There is a dimension of his personality that transcends all of the time-space things that bind and hold him. There is an aspect of his personality that is never quite contained and anything that he may be doing or experiencing at any given moment in time. There's a sense in which man is always the observer of himself, the participant in the deeds in which he's involved. It is in this sense that man, in my thought, experiences freedom, for freedom has to do with the final and ultimate power of veto and certification over one's own life. It is deep in the inward parts, where a man ultimately and finally says, yes, or no and makes it stick. It is the total response of the personality to the event, but it is always somewhat outside of the event and never quite contained in it. And because I think that freedom has to do with the total response of the individual to the experiences of his life, to me, freedom essentially is a spiritual experience. And in the language of religion, freedom is a manifestation of the givenness of God in the life of man. It is the awareness by which and through which the creator of life realizes himself in the individual. Freedom, therefore, cannot be given, nor can it be taken away. It does not touch the final initiative that an individual must hold over his own life. And therefore, I make this passing distinction between liberty and freedom for the purposes of our discussion. Freedom in the sense in which I am thinking of it, then, expresses itself in two fundamentally authentic manifestations of responsibility. There is the responsibility which the individual has for his own actions. And that is to say that a man standing in his place can so act in the present as to influence, determine, and often shape the future, his future, that there is a tight critical of continuity between the doer and the results of the deed. And this is true whether there is innocence with reference to the act or not. The relentless logic of antecedent and consequence binds the doer and the deed. And therefore, freedom means, in this sense, the ability and the willingness to accept and to take responsibility for one's actions. When I was a boy, I had two sisters. One was older and one was younger, and I was, therefore, in the middle. And I found it a very convenient place to be because whenever my mother reprimanded me for doing something, I could always say that I did it to help my little sister out, or I did it because my older sister made me. [LAUGHTER] I did not ever have the sense of responsibility for my own action. There is something very tyrannical about this, as if an individual were caught in a vast, comprehensive process that squeezes him closer and closer, until at last he and his deed are brought face to face. It is this is that the master means, I think, when he talks about the climax of human history. It's a very melodramatic picture. You may recall. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu It is the end of the age, and all the peoples of the Earth are gathered together, and there is a king who is seated on the throne as an oriental despot. The sheep are to his right, and the goats are to his left. But the interesting thing is it is not the arbitrary will, judgment, or insistence of the judge that determines who goes to the right or to the left. No, it is the deeds of a man that send him to the right or to the left. Pitts Theology Library Emory University I was sick, and you would not visit me. I was hungry, and you gave me no food to eat. I was naked, and you would not restore my self-respect by giving me clothes to wear. I was imprisoned, and you passed me by, and you thought you were doing it to tired, weary, skinned, and cast down human beings. No, you were doing it to the deepest, most fundamental, most articulate thing in you and in the universe. You did it unto Me, and you did it unto yourself. And the story of your life, this is your judgement. Freedom, then, means the ability so to act at any given moment in time as to influence, shape, determine the future with reference to you and the deed. There is a second kind of authentic responsibility, which is involved here, and it is different from responsibility for one's own actions. It is the responsibility for one's reactions to the experiences of one's life, and this is a very cutting manifestation of the very idiom of freedom, for it says that there is always the possibility of maintaining a sense of option, a sense of alternatives, as one deals with the experiences and encounters of life. And perhaps, this sense of option, this sense of alternative, is the most commonplace and perhaps the most authentic expression of freedom. And mark you, I do not say that that freedom, in my thinking, means of necessity the opting of the option. I'm am not saying that freedom is defined in terms of whether or not at any given moment in time a man is able to opt the option, to grasp a viable alternative in the squeeze in which he is found. I am not saying this. But I'm saying that the sense, the feel, of alternatives, the feel for options, the awareness of the riding, the always riding possibility, of alternative options, this is the genius of freedom. One of the most dramatic sermons that I heard as a boy was delivered by a man who was, in our community, a traveling evangelist. He went around preaching at various churches. And in this particular sermon, he talked about a visit that he made to hell. He wasn't living there-[LAUGHTER] --but he was given a personally conducted tour through hell. And in that far off time in the past, there were two major sins in our community. One was dancing, and the other was playing cards. Now, that may date me even beyond the recall of any history, but-[LAUGHTER] So that when he went to hell, the first place to which he was carried was a huge dance hall. And in this dance hall, there were millions and millions of people dancing, and they had to dance forever and ever and with the same partner. [LAUGHTER] 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu There was all options exhausted. This was the thing that made it hell. No forked devil, no fire and brimstone, no lake of ice, no excruciating agony always fired by an undying remorse-- no, just caught and held in the terrible grapple of the absence of any alternative that finally was internalized by the individual, so that the sense of options died, died, died. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now, mark you, I do not say that freedom means the ability to opt the option. I repeat it. But there is a dimension of the human spirit that seems to me to stand outside of all that is eventful, that that is never quite completely internalized, and I think this is why tyrants are always finally overthrown. Because there is a vacuum, as it were, at the very center of personality that holds against the internalizing of whatever may be the events, the experiences, through which one may be passing at any given moment. There is an area that is always finally out of reach of the event, and it is this, this area, that holds intention always, the possibility of an alternative. And this is the threat to the tyrant. He cannot ever quite reach into this central core where something holds against all that he would do. And this whole intention, as I say, the sense of alternatives. And as long as there is a sense of option, as long as there is a sense of alternatives, then the individual is isolated against any slow, or sudden, or graphic in the tyranny of circumstance. Now, this is very binding in terms of one's personal life. There is a sense in which we are all victims, victims of circumstances over which we are unable to exercise any control. Sudden radical change, and what may be at any moment the operation of fate-- and an individual thus caught and thus victimized has one area that is uniquely his and that can never be taken away from him. He may give it up, perhaps, but it cannot be taken away from him. And that is that he and he alone can decide how he will deal with the inevitable circumstances of his life. He may not be able to change it. All possible creative remedies for relief may exhaust themselves. One by one, he may witness the closing of his doors. And there is no power available to him by which he may seek help to alter what seems to be the relentless movement of antecedent and consequence in his life. But there is one creative margin left always. He can give or withhold his sanction. He can reserve some tiny area, perhaps, in which his will may function as the will of the Creator of life. You remember in Oedipus the Fates had done their work, and he had then assigned the judgment, the fact that he did not know fully what he was doing? He was not aware of who he was, in a sense, and certainly who his mother was, but all these considerations are beside the point. He had acted, and he had set in motion a process that must run itself out. And he was caught in the logic of that process. So he accepts his fate. But just before he is banished into the wilderness-- do you remember?-- he goes back into the palace. And then, if one listens very carefully, one hears a groan, and then one sees Oedipus staggering out of the doors of the palace, finding his way down the steps to go out into the wilderness, but there's a difference. I have no choice about the acceptance of the fate. I am caught and trapped by this, but there is left still for me a margin of initiative, which is the hallmark of the free spirit. With my own 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu hands, I can pluck my eyeballs out, and affirm my right to be myself under this terrible judgement. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now, there is this margin always available. In thinking about our days here at this church, I ran across something written many years ago by Dr. Holmes, and it has profound bearing on the heart of what I'm saying and this second aspect of our discussion. It has to do with the war of that period, and these other words-If any man or boy in this church answers the call to arms, I shall bless him as he marches to the front. When he lies in the trenches, or watches on the lonely sentinel post, or fights in the charge, I shall follow him with my prayers. If he is brought back dead from hospital or battlefield, I shall bury him with all the honors, not of war, but of religion. He will have obeyed his conscience and thus performed his whole duty as a man. But I also have a conscience, and that conscience I also must obey. When, therefore, there comes a call for volunteers, I shall have to refuse to heed. When there is an enrollment of citizens for military purposes, I shall have to refuse to register. When, or if, the system of conscription is adopted, I shall have to decline to serve. If this means a fine, I will pay my fine. If this means imprisonment, I will serve my term. If this means persecution, I will carry my cross. No order of president or governor, no law of nation or state, no loss of reputation, freedom, or life will persuade me or force me to this business of killing. On this issue, for me at least, there is no compromise. Mistaken, foolish, fanatical I may be. I will not deny the charge. But false to my own soul, I will not be. Therefore, here I stand. God help me. I cannot do other. Freedom means to hold the power of veto and certification finally over your own life. It means to hold the initiative over your own life, and this is always a viable alternative if a man does not internalize the events and the circumstances of his life. And even when this has happened, he still has a margin in which he can yet determine how he will react to the events of his life over which he is unable to exercise any control. I will not be forced by the events of my life to say, "yes" or "no." I will decide and make it stick. This is the mark of the free spirit. Era of the kingdom 'neath the skies, often he falls, yet falls to rise, stumbling, bleeding, beaten back, holding still to his upper track, playing his part in creation's plan, God-like in image, this is man. Give me the strength to be free, free, and to endure the burden of freedom, and the loneliness of those without chains. Let us pray. Our words have been said, and that our feet are the broken lances of our thoughts, will Thou accept all of our offering and transform it into that which is needful for our peace? And for us, our Father, this is enough. [ORGAN MUSIC PLAYING] 5 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu (SINGING) Hold fast to dreams. (SINGING) Hold fast to dreams. For if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird. that cannot fly. (SINGING) Hold fast to dreams. (SINGING) Hold fast to dreams. (SINGING) For when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow. (SINGING) Hold fast to dreams. 6 Pitts Theology Library Emory University (SINGING) Hold fast to dreams. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource What Shall I Do With My Life? (1971, New York Community Church, New York, NY) Description An account of the resource In this series, Thurman discusses the concepts of freedom in the actions of an individual, how freedom is negotiated in a fluid world of logic, time, and natural order, and how communities can act in freedom. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by ShaCarolyn Halyard AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-037_A.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon New York Community Church, New York City, New York Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1970s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette What Shall I Do with My Life (I): Freedom of the Human Spirit (New York Community Church, NYC), 1971 Mar 7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-037_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource What Shall I Do with My Life, Part 1: Freedom of the Human Spirit, 1971 March 7 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-03-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-8235591.761571 4975207.9418671)) Description An account of the resource Here Thurman highlights the spiritual experience of freedom. The implications of freedom as it relates to the manifestation of God and the awareness of God realized in the individual are also discussed. Just as there is a responsibility in freedom for our actions that determine, shape, and influence the future; there is also a responsibility for one’s reactions to life’s experiences. The most authentic expression of freedom is the endless possibilities of choice. Freedom is the power to accept or reject, it is the power to take initiative over one’s own life. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard choice freedom God https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/05fff7697c75ba1fd488de5da067a0fb.pdf 5b8e2e36bcdcaea404fd6552e9c81f7d PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-037_B.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In Him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers and under His wings should thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flies by day, nor for the pestilence than walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon day. 1,000 shall fall at thy side, and 10,000 at thy right hand. But it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling, for he shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bare thee up in their hand, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shall tread upon the lion and adder. The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet because He hath set His love upon me. Therefore, will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him with long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. For our meditation, I am reading three paragraphs from The Inward Journey. There are miracles in the spirit of which the world knows nothing. Such is the testimony that comes to us from the lips of George Fox. Our lives are surrounded day by day and night after eventful night by the stupendous revelations of what man is discovering about the world around him. Each day we seem to penetrate more deeply into the process of nature. Thousands of men and women with utter devotion give themselves to the pursuit of secret disclosures from the chamber of mysteries of which they themselves are a part, and from which they have come forth. It is as if there is a mighty collective and individual effort to remember what they were before the mind became mind and the body became flesh and blood. So successful has been the appropriation of the knowledge of the mysteries of air and wind and earth, that what a decade ago would have startled and frightened the most mature adult is today taken for granted by the simplest child. We speak of going to the moon, not as denizens of the shadows, where unrealities tumble over one another in utter chaos. Rather, we speak of going to the moon and back again with voices that are brimming over with an arrogance that even a god may not command. But let one arise in our midst to speak of secrets of another kind. Let one say that the world of the spirit has vast frontiers which call to us as our native [INAUDIBLE]. At once the deep split in our spirits reveals itself, out of our eyes as we listen, there leaps the steady glow of recognition while our lips speak of superstition and delusion. 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Pitts Theology Library Emory University Can the miracles in the spirit be real, be true? Because they seem always to be personal and private. Does this not add to their unreality? The miracles in the spirit, what are they? The resolving of inner conflict, upon which all the lances of the mind have splintered and fallen helplessly from the hand, the daring of the spirit that puts to route the evil deed and that decadent unfaith, the experiences of new purposes which give courage to the weak, hope to the despairing, life to those burdened by sin and failure. The quality of reverence that glows within the mind, illuminating it within incentive to bring under the control of spirit all the boundless fruits of knowledge, the necessity for inner and outer peace as the meaning of all men's striving. The discovery that the covenant of brotherhood is the witness of the work of the spirit of God in the life of man. And the hymn of praise offered to him as thanksgiving and glory. Thou who builds the nest for the bird that has lost his sight, build thou for us, for we too are blind. The dilemmas in the wilderness. In the book it is written, then whilst Jesus led up of the spirit, into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was after the hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple. And said unto him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, he shall give His angels charge concerning thee, the 91st Psalm, and in their hands, they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and said unto him, all these things will I give Thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then, said Jesus unto him, get thee hence, Satan, for it is written thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and him only shall thou serve. The dilemmas may be characterized as the fantasies. You may recall, those of you who were here last Sunday, that in the course of our discussion, it was pointed out that in my thought, man is the space binder and the time binder. That he is a creature of the earth. He is a part of the stuff of life. And at the same time, he is a time binder. There is a diminishing of his personality, of his life, that always transcends the limitations of his creatureliness. He is always exhibiting the rather basic principle of a Gothic arch. The pillars rooted and grounded with their flying buttresses in the earth. Earth bound, earth fixed, earth grounded, while they support the great sweeping arches reaching into infinity. The time bound and the timeless, the universal and the particular, the infinite and the finite. He has, man has, the body of an animal. The face of a man. And always there is something in him that wants to fly, that wants to soar, that wants to transcend, that wants to break out and spill over and reach beyond. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Pitts Theology Library Emory University After 40 days, in this fantasy that was going on in the mind of Jesus, growing out of the tremendous religious experience which he had in the Jordan, an experience which gives to him a sense of sanction that, in one way or another, belongs to the high moment, the peak moment of the human spirit, that moment in which it seems as if all that is meaningful, all that is significant, all that is purposeful, all that is fundamental in existence gives to me its support in the undertaking, which is mine. And he describes it in very pictorial language. The heavens open and the spirit descended upon him like a dove. And he, no one else, this is his fantasy, his dream, he heard the voice say, I approve of your life. How, then, does a man live day by day, so that in the living of his life, he will do no violence to the central sanction to which at one critical, creative moment in his life, he gave the nerve center of his consent. This was the problem. So after 40 days, he was hungry and he said, if my experience of the eternal is as I sensed it and felt it at that insightful and dramatic moment, then I ought to be able to live that way all the time. But I'm hungry. Man must have bread to eat, bread. There's an old Zulu that says, full belly child says to empty belly child, be of good cheer. Only the empty belly child has the right to say to the empty belly child, be of good cheer. Bread, man must have bread. But the way the insight turned up in him, man must not live by bread, but this is not right. Man does live by bread. This is a practical world. And a man must find a way by which he can build a windbreak against the impersonal operation of the society around him so that behind it he may have some measure of tranquility so as to establish a sense of his own being and reproduce his kind with some measure of tranquility and peace. This is a practical world. Man must have bread. Man does not live by bread, but he does live by bread. He does not live by bread. He does. Does not. He does. Does not. Perhaps all through the night, who knows, there's no one to tell us. This was the squeeze play in which he was caught and held. Something is wrong with this. Man does live by bread, but man does not quite live by bread, maybe. And finally, there began to move around, as a rumor in his spirit, one little whispering word, one little whispered word, alone. And it kept building and building until, from all the hills, everywhere, it began to shout, alone, alone, alone. That's it, man does not live by bread alone. But by every word that issues out of the mouth of God. There is the sweeping arch, the hungers of the mind, the heart, the spirit. These must be nourished. Into the fulfillment of the experience of my peak moment of illumination, by recognizing that this is a very practical world but the reality of the practical does not exhaust the possibility of reality. This isn't [INAUDIBLE]. So I will recognize the pillars that support the arches. I will salute them. I will be grounded in them. But I will let the bias, the leaning, the prejudice of my life always register on the side of the hungers of the mind and the spirit. For without these being nourished, the pillars begin to crumble and the life begins to rot, rot, rot. In the second fantasy took him to the pinnacle of the temple. And in his mind he said, if I can-suppose I did jump from the pinnacle, what would happen to me? It's an interesting fantasy. It's 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu almost like a fantasy that I suppose all children have, but I'm sure I had when I was a boy when I felt that I'd been really misunderstood and mistreated by my mother and my grandmother. I imagined myself dead and in my coffin, and all the weeping that was going on. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Rather morbid, but suppose I did go up there and I did jump. The world, the basic ground of life, is not orderly. Perhaps there is no structure of dependability that sustains all of the for instances of life. And this is what the tempter said, that there is no structure of dependability, that the natural order is not grounded in any logic, really. And if you, the time binder, if you can get your mind so to brood over the stuff of the order, you can transcend it at every point and do as you please. If you know enough, if you have enough moral character, if you are good enough, you can stand outside of the relentless logic of the rhythm of the order and ignore it. And function without any responsibility to the fact that you are grounded in the order yourself because you have a mind. I was examined by one of my friends who was a very excellent physician. And my annual examination, and it was many years ago so it has nothing to do with my present doctor, and he sent me to all of the various people to do their various things, tests and so forth. At the end of about five or six days, he sent for me. And there's always something very fateful about that visit. As I sat in the chair. And he sat at his desk with the manila folder. And he opened it and then began looking at sheets, and mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And he went all the way through it and finally came to the end and held one sheet for a little while and then time stood still. And then finally he put it back and finally closed the folder. And he said to me, you are in pretty good shape for your age. And he talked rather learnedly about what weight would do and you know, all the things, which I felt but did not understand. And then I looked at him. Now, he was not as tall as I. And he weighed about 225 pounds. He thought that his body knew that he was a doctor. His body did not know that he was a doctor. His body knew precisely what my body knew, that he was storing up more caloric units than he was burning up. He thought that his knowledge, his skill, his insight, would somehow in some magical manner give him immunity against the relentless logic of the throb of the natural order in which he is grounded and root. This is the dilemma of the natural order, that there is a way by which it is possible because man has a mind for him to so operate that he will be an exception to the rule to the order. Nations feel that way. This is one of our perils, isn't it, as a nation? We are all powerful and we are fat and we are rich. We brooded over nature until we were able to get into our keeping secrets of the energy of the atom. And the first great creative expression of our gratitude was to build a bomb. We are not bound by the order that binds the little nation, the poor nation, the backward nation. This is the terror. This is the cruel dilemma. For you know, I have a conviction that there are two fundamental ways by which men or nations experience the wrath and all the love of God. I think that if we understand the secrets of nature and are able to establish some creative affinity between the rational order inherent in the stuff of mind and the rational order in the external world, so that there's a flowing together, and we use this wisdom and this knowledge, this insight, this expertise, as the [INAUDIBLE] of God, healing and redeeming and making secure, 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu and helpful, and heal, then as a community, as a society, I think we experience the love of God in this kind of manifestation of benediction. Pitts Theology Library Emory University But if we take this and use it as instruments of our own selfishness, narrowness, and bigotry, so that we become avenging angels in the world, then we experience the wrath of God. And both of these are inherent in the rhythm of the nature of life itself. And then there is the dilemma, you see, that is inherent in the Gothic principle, the principle of the Gothic arts. And there is the dilemma that is inherent in the natural order of which we are part, but over against which, with our minds, are able to place ourselves as if we were other. And then there is the dilemma, the dilemma of the organized community. How to put this, the dilemma created by the state, by formal, by the formal agreement by which men live together on the basis of certain ties that bind, political, social, and economic. And then his fantasy, he was carried to a high place. And he was shown in one swirling moment a vision of the kingdoms of the world. And there was a quickening of the pulse. What would happen if the thing that I feel so deeply about the meaning of life became a part of the very essence of the kingdoms of this world? And the tempter said, Look at them all. They are good to look at. They're very attractive. And you can have them. No trouble. You can have them. And what wouldn't someone like you be able to do if you had control of all that power? And his head turned around on his neck. And he trembled. Off course, there's a little formality, nothing unusual. If you will just give to me to a certain way of living and thinking and feeling and projecting, give to me the nerve center of your consent. That's all. I don't want anything else. Just down at the very root of your being, where ultimately your final sanctions rest, where you are literal in your substance. There give your ascent. This is your thinking and your fantasy is quite logical but it isn't true. It is true that I created the world. I created nature and man, and you, and everybody. And this, you recognize. And from that, you concluded something that threw you off. You concluded that since God is the creator of life and the living substance, and all manifestations of life in his far flung creativity, therefore the creator of life is also the creator of the relationships that exist between the objects of creation. And this is where you are in error, [INAUDIBLE]. I, said the tempter, I am the creator of the relationships that exist between manifestations of creation. And if you want to make all of the expressions of life become a lung through with the creator of life may breathe, then in order to do this, your priority must be to my concern. And in his desperation, the only answer Jesus could give was, thou shall worship God alone, and Him only shalt thou serve. And I imagine he said it over and over again, a sort of rallying point for his spirit. And the dilemma is this, how can there be a sense of ethical and social responsibility placed at the center of power? We have not found an answer to this. It is the unique prerogative of the state, it seems, as symbolic of the society, to maintain the power of veto and certification over the private life. 5 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And there seems to be no margin of room for the private will to be honored ultimately if it is in conflict with the structure of power [INAUDIBLE]. This struggle, it is very much a part of what many of us are going through now, the conscious, the private conscious, over against the command and the order of the state. This has been expressed in very graphic terms and in terms of religion by the poet of the desert, Badger Clark. And he's talking about the Civil War. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And this is how he puts it. My father prayed as he drew a bead on the grey coat, back in those blazing years when the house was divided, bless his old heart, there never was truer or kinder, yet my father prayed while hoping that the ball from his clumsy old musket might thud to the body of some hot-eyed young southerner and tumble him limp in the mud of the Vicksburg trenches. That was my father, praying and shooting, full-heartedly, never a doubt. But what about me? In my day of battle, could I put my prayers behind a slim Springfield bullet? Hardly except to mutter, Jesus, you and I part company here. My country calls for my body and takes my soul also. Do you see those humans herded and driven against me? Turn away, Jesus, for I must kill. Why such evils bring some vast, vague good to my country, I do not know. The only thing that I know is that day my business is killing and my god must be luck and the devil till this thing is over. Turn away, Jesus. Your eyes make me slack in my duty. That was my father. My father could mix his prayer with a shooting. And he was a great, good man in his generation. But if I should pray like him, I'd spoil it by laughing. What is the matter? How, finally, do I vote when the grounds of my moral integrity are at stake? This is the dilemma of the state, the dilemma of the Gothic principle, the dilemma of the natural order, the dilemma of the state. I saw a man pursuing the horizon. Round and round, he sped. I was disturbed at this, so I accosted the man. I said, it is futile. You can never. You lie, he cried, and ran on and on. And on. Our closing hymn in the Blue Book is number 45. 6 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource What Shall I Do With My Life? (1971, New York Community Church, New York, NY) Description An account of the resource In this series, Thurman discusses the concepts of freedom in the actions of an individual, how freedom is negotiated in a fluid world of logic, time, and natural order, and how communities can act in freedom. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by ShaCarolyn Halyard AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-037_B.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon New York Community Church, New York City, New York Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1970s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette What Shall I Do with My Life (II): The Dilemma in the Wilderness (New York Community Church, NYC), 1971 Mar 14 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-037_B Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource What Shall I Do with My Life, Part 2: The Dilemma in the Wilderness, 1971 March 14 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-03-14 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img style="border-width:0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" alt="80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-8235591.761571 4975207.9418671)) Description An account of the resource Here Thurman uses Matthew 4:1-11 as a framework to discuss the practical world against the possibility of reality. The fluidity of natural order or lack thereof is also discussed as it relates to logic, time, and exceptions to the rules of the natural order. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard Christ Matthew natural order https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/08fbd84df02de9047f28d754b3b7cfe7.pdf 02370999475edfb6820ed2944452acce PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-038_A.mp3 [CHOIR SINGING] Pitts Theology Library Emory University Our lesson is found this morning from the book of Genesis, the first two verses, and the selection from Audrey's African Genesis. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Never to be forgotten, to be derided, is the end conspicuous figure in the quiet back room of civilization. He sits with a head bent silent, waiting, listening to the commotion in the streets. He is the keeper of the kinds. Who is he? We do not know. But his presence is evident in the last reaches of infinite space, beyond man's probing eye. His presence is guessable in the last reaches of infinite smallness, beyond the magnification of electron or microscope. He is present in all living beings and in all inanimate matter. His presence as of said it in all things that ever were and in all things that will ever be. And as his command is unanswerable, his identity is unknowable. But his most ancient concern is with order. You may sense his presence in the kind of matter called helium, that has always and will forever behave according to the rules and regulations of helium. You may sense his word in the second law of thermodynamics, or the pattern of behavior a brook trout in a clear New Zealand pool. You may find his word in the forms of cities and symphonies, of Rembrandts and fir trees, and cumulus clouds. You may read his command and the regularity of turning things, and stars, and seasons, and tides, and in striking clocks. Where births the green of apple orchard all of a springtime day, there passes his presence. And here too, he passes in the wind fluttering of scarlet leaves, and the coals of the harvester. Where a child is born or a man lies dead. Where life must go on, though tragedy deny it. Where a farmer replant fields again despoiled by flood or drought. Where men rebuild cities that other men destroy. Where tides was here as tides have flowed. There, see his footprints, there, and there. He cares only for order. And whatever he says, we shall do. He is rising now in civilization's quiet back room. And he is looking out of the window. [CHOIR SINGING] Let the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Before I begin our thinking together on the experience of community, on behalf of Mrs. Thurman and my son, I wish to express our appreciation for all of the creditors, and little, and simple expressions of spontaneous grace by which you have surrounded our days here. We have been reading the community news for a long time, but now, when it comes to us in San Francisco, we will read it with the freshness that was not a part of our experience before. Pitts Theology Library Emory University As an immediate background for our thought, will you listen to these words? I like to feel strange life beating up against my life. I like to realize forms of life utterly unlike my own. When my own life feels small, and I am oppressed with it, I like to crush together, and see it in a picture in an instant, a multitude of disconnected unlike phrases of human life. A medieval monk with a string of beads facing the quiet orchard, and looking up from the grass at his feet to the heavy fruit trees. Little Malay boys playing naked on a shining sea beach. A Hindu philosopher alone under his banyan tree, thinking, thinking, thinking, so that in the thought of God, he may lose himself. A troop of Bacchanalians dressed in white, with crowns a vine leaves dancing along the Roman streets. A martyr on the night of his death, looking through the narrow window to the sky, and the feeling that already, he has the winds that shall bear him up. An epicurean discussing at a Roman bath to a knot of his disciples on the nature of happiness. A Kathar witch doctor seeking for herbs by moonlight, while from the huts on the hillsides, come the sound of dogs barking, and the voices of women and children. A mother giving bread and milk to her children in little wooden basins, and singing the evening song. I like to see it all. I feel it run through me that life belongs to me. It makes my little life larger. It breaks down the narrow walls that shut me in. The experience of community is a part of the giveness of light. To put before you rather clearly what is at work in my mind, let us think for a moment about the two different dimensions that are present are apparent in our use of the term life. There is life that is contrasted with death. That has a beginning and an ending. That is held in a tight circle, representing a limited time interval in which one lives, is born, lives, die. Life in that sense. And then there is life that contains both life and death. Life as a vast creative continuum with reference to which we cannot think either of beginning or ending. We can think of beginnings and endings, perhaps. But all as a little time interval affecting a particular expression of life. It is for this reason then that we are profoundly convinced that life itself is alive. Now of course, you know that you are alive. And the person next to you may be alive. And that the mind is so overwhelmed by the mass attack of all of these particular expressions of aliveness, that the most profound, and essentially simple, and significant aspect of life is overlooked and 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu that is that life itself is alive. And it is this ground of aliveness, this basic undercurrent of respiration that sustains all particular expressions of life. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And this becomes very significant in contemplating the meaning of death. For it becomes very, very clear as we think of life and death in this dimension, that death is always thought of in terms of the life and death cycle. As something that happens in life. Not something that happens to life. And all religions have seized upon this basic insight, and addressed themselves to some dimension of meaning about the significance of the little time interval in which you live and I live that transcends that time interval. Now the experience of community is the gross experience of the unity of life. It is the gross experience that binds all life together. That signifies and underscores the oneness of life. Now when this ground experience of community becomes a part of the deliberate intent, selfconscious intent of the individual, then at the level of self awareness, we become conscious of the binding unity that holds all of life together. It is for this reason that we are very conscious of the walls that separate one form of life from another. And there is always a feeling, almost a rumor in the mind, that if you work at it, you can bypass the thing that separates one form of life from another. Those of you who are interested in this, and perhaps have been reading about it, may recall the experiments that are being done in your own city, in New York City, with reference to the effect of the emotions, dare I say this, the effect of the emotions that go on in plants, on the emotions that go on inside of you. It makes life sort of weird that the plant knows when I am approaching it with the scissors. And it says something to me about what I am doing. And perhaps the pain that it feels is reflected in some stirring in my own emotions. I don't know. Let's think about it. Look into it. I don't have time to move in that direction at the moment. The experience of community is given. This is the point that I'm making. It is a part of the can'thelp-it-ness of life. It is basic, we are rooted in it. It is the thing that makes all life one. Now when with my mind I formalize this experience, and make it an act of volition, and intent, it is then that the resources in which I am rooted as a living become available to me at the level of the kind of lifestyle, the kind of world that I am hoping to experience in consciousness, and as a part of the ordering of society. It is for this reason that the dreams that men have, when they are at their best, the dreams that they have about the way life ought to be if they had the power to shape it, to order it, to tailor make it-- always these dreams that we call utopia-- are grounded and rooted in a sense of harmony. In which consciously now, the relationship between expressions of, life human being, we experience at that level of awareness, what is a part of the giveness that sustains us as living creatures. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu So the prophet Isaiah talks of the time when the lion and the lamb will lie down together. When a little child will put his hand over the whole of an ass, and the ass will relax his self regarding impulse, and not sting the child. Because as the prophet put it the knowledge of God will cover the earth, and the waters cover the sea. The experience of community at the deepest level will rise up, and then feed the conscious activities of human beings. This is what he said. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And the theme is reflected in the past, the racial memory, the stories of creation. All of them say this from whatever culture, whatever style of life, however simple or sophisticated. When men began to dream about how did the world get started. Always, they come upon the same basic insight. There was a time when harmony, order-- this was the given of creation. And then of course, a divisive principle happened and all kinds of things happen. When I was a boy, I visited one of my friends across the woods. And when I went around the house into the backyard, I heard someone rapping on the, window and it was his father telling me to come around come through the front door. And I did. And when I went into the room where he was. He pointed out to the backyard and there, my friend's baby sister, and of course, this man's daughter, was sitting in the yard of the baby-- about two, six, eight nine month baby-- a crawling creature-- sitting down in the sand, playing with his rattlesnake. Now, they were having a wonderful experience. The rattlesnake would crawl away, she'd pull him back bu his tail. She would turn him on his back. And they were flowing together. And my friend the stationed on one side, and I was stationed on the other. Why? So that no one would come around and do what? Introduce in to this harmony in which you see it at the level of intent, the ground of oneness was lifted and was being experienced. This would be disrupted by their being introduced an invasive or divisive. There would be fear, and anxiety, and death, and fire breaking the hearth. It is for this reason then, that when we think of the deliberate and self-conscious relationships between human beings, we cannot think creatively about it. It seems we cannot enter into it creatively. Unless we are aware of the that common ground of experienced community, which is synonymous with being alive. Thus then, becomes an act on the part of an individual when he wills the nonexistence of a human being. When he intends his non-existent, see-- how to say this-- he sees him as if he were not. It is for this reason I think, that in times of, war one of the first things that society does is for us to set up the enemy category, which puts the enemy somewhat out of bounds. And then to redefine the enemy so that the enemy is no longer what? A member of the human race. Now as soon as that happens, the ground is prepared for his nonexistence. So whatever tie, whatever ethical tie, whatever sense of reverence or a god that I might have for him as a human being, is wiped out because his existence does not exist in my mind. And if I cannot recognize that he is there, then he is no longer binding upon me. 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Now love is the same thing in another very creative dimension or perhaps, difference. For you see, if hate means in the light of this species-- if hate means the will of another person's nonexistence, if I may tie the words up that way, then love means to let the experience of community in me become one with the community of experience in him. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And it is for this reason then that the beached head that love always establishes in another human being consistently is at a point in that other human being that is beyond all of his faults, and all of his virtues. It is to get on the other side of the frontier. And standing there to look back across the frontier at your life and the other person's life. It is for this reason for instance, that forgiveness is so hard in any of the categories of any religion. Because I cannot forgive if I have not been able to go past the frontier that separates, that provides the context, dividing this life from my life. But once I make it, then there is this [INAUDIBLE]. And it cannot be done without the active work of imagination. And I think this is where this is where self-consciousness, where the existence of the coming into being of the mind in man works creatively. Very often, it works, the other way around. But it works creatively in this regard, because the imagination enables you to do this. And without this imagination, you can't. The phrase is, without imagination, you cannot see God. Without imagination, you cannot see man. To give you a feeling of what I'm thinking, I visited with a friend of mine once, and he had a little boy who was just learning how to ride a kiddie car. And he drove his car into the living room, where I was reading the morning's paper. And he stopped his kiddie car at my feet, and he said, Mr. Thurman, will you please help me change my tire? I just had a blow out. So I put the newspaper down, I helped him jack up his car, and we took the old shoe off, put the new one on. And all the etiquette of tire changing, we observed. And then he got back in the car, and he pushed the start and stepped on it, and the motor wouldn't turn over. And then he tried it again, and the motor wouldn't turn over. So he got out of the car, and walked around, raised the hood, and tinkered a little. He said, everything's right here. And looked on the other side, seems to be in good order here. So he got back in the car, and stepped on the starter, and still nothing happened. And then out of the corner of my eye, because I didn't want to embarrass him by looking straight at him, his shoulders tightened, and I saw a grimace come in his face unlike his preadolescent exterior. And then out of his mouth, I heard the most amazing thing words. Vast spirals of profanity. And these were the words he had heard his father use under such circumstances. And still, the motor wouldn't turn over. Oh, then he got out of the car, and walked around behind. And took the top off the gas tank. Walked over to me and said, Mr. Thurman, do you have a pencil? I said, I have a pen, so I gave him my pen. He took the pen, walked back to the gas tank, put the pen down in the gas tank, held 5 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu it up, and said, ah, the tank is empty. And with that, he got on his kiddie car, it out into the dining room into the kitchen, asked his mother for a glass of water, came back, drank it, and had his gas. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now listen. A sense of self-projection carrying with you your experience of community in the sense that I'm thinking of it. And there entering in to the ground of another human being, even as you remain yourself. The experience of community is a part of the giveness of life. It is one with the unity of life. It is one with the aliveness of life. When this experience of community becomes the formal intent, the volitional act of the individual with the purpose of experiencing at the level of awareness what is experienced at the ground of being. Now when a person does this, then he feels that what he is trying to do in working for a good society, what he is trying to do when he is when he is trying to experience his all holiness so that he will not be cloven, but will be unanimous within himself, what he is trying to do is fundamental to the intent-- using intent, not in a metaphysical sense-- in the intent of the whole creative process. Now if he is a religious man, if he is a religious man, and feels that there is brooding over the whole process of life, it creator who wields the wholeness of his creation, then all the gross is net. The experience of community must move up, up, up, and up until it becomes the intense of the individual. There is a sense then of holiness at the core of man that must abound and all he does. That marks with reverence, his every step that has its sway when all else fails. That wearies out all evil things. That warms the depths of frozen fears, making friend of fall, making love out of hate, and lasts beyond the living and the dead. Beyond the goals of peace and the ends of war. This man seeks through all his year to be complete and of one piece within without. A quiet. A feeling of gratitude, oh, Father, for the moment, a presence that visits us, despite our weakness, our failure, we rejoice that in this experience our hearts lives, even as our body lives in the oneness of ourselves and all created things. Therefore, I will fly in the greatness of God as the [INAUDIBLE] flies, filling all the space betwixt the marsh and the skies. By so many [INAUDIBLE] as the marsh grasps, sand and the sod, behold, I will lay me ahold on the greatness of God. [CHOIR MUSIC] It is my tablet, we pick it up. That's why men flee from freedom many times. 6 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu When I lived in San Francisco, one summer, [INAUDIBLE] going to one of these ladies conferences down in Guatemala. And the day with which she left, and the schedule to leave, the lady who lives with her mother and Arkansas-- her mother was very elderly-- dropped dead. And why I came a knocking. This meant that someone had to go down there to do what was necessary. And we had a house meeting on this. And it was discussed up and down. Pitts Theology Library Emory University The house meeting agreed that the [INAUDIBLE] should not give up her trip, but she flew on schedule the next morning. And I could not go, because I had responsibilities in connection with the church and other things. And this meant our two daughters-- one was 10, the other was 16, 15, something like that. So my older daughter said, well, Ann and I will go down and hold the thing together until mother gets back. And Ann jumped up from the table and ran upstairs, and I heard her door slam with that particular quality. Then after a respectful time, I went up, and I heard her in there sobbing. And I walked in and sat down on her bed. And I said, can you hear me? I said, don't say anything, just nod your head. So she nodded her head. I said, I have come up not to tell him to stop crying, but I have come up to explain to you why you are crying. You are crying because you did not want to go to Arkansas with your sister. You're not crying because it means you give up all the good times you're going to have in San Francisco, and that's a place where you can enjoy yourself. No, you're not crying for these things, even though it seems as if you were crying for these reasons. But you're crying because for the first time in our life, the family is asking you, demanding of you, that you carry your end of the stick. And you know that when you get on the train tomorrow in response to this kind of responsibility, one whole itty bit of your life is gone forever. You will never be again as you were before. Your moment of that kind of innocence is gone. And the responsibility For this brings the tears to your eyes. Now we can work this out in a way, because I want to take the last few minutes [INAUDIBLE] describes responsibility. And that is responsibility-- and this is more critical, I think-responsibility for your reactions. And this is where-- this is where things bite. It is true that we are surrounded in our world by vast impersonal, social, and economic forces, natural forces. Only to be unable to exercise any positive control again and again. So the master says, God caused his son to [INAUDIBLE] the good man and the bad man. If I have just killed a man, and it's raining, the rain won't skip my yard because I'm a murderer. So much of our energy and time are spent in trying to protect ourselves on the one hand, from the impersonal aberration of the world of nature, by building protection against the weather, by doing things that will enable us to control our environment wherever we are, and stabilize the things that we need to guarantee our physical existence. This is a part of man's struggle, isn't it? 7 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu To protect himself, to personalize the impersonal dimensions of the external world. The same thing is true with reference to the society, and to the economic forces by which you are surrounded. They don't know anything about your qualities. Pitts Theology Library Emory University If you bought a pound of sugar a day for whatever it sells for, $0.10 or whatever, and tomorrow, because of something that happened 5,000 miles away, we have to pay $0.15 for this, you will. Then, at the end of it, you may have been as good as you knew how, as kind to all your neighbors, as generous in your spirit, as devout and holy, but that has nothing to do with it. if you get a sugar, you pay $0.03 more for it. We are always victim in this sense of the word. So that if standing in my place, I am trying to control the impersonal, social, and economic, and natural forces that impinge upon my life, and shape, and mold, and operate upon me, then I am doing do not merely disenchantment, but I am doom to disaster. So what can I do then I must be free, bearing in mind the definition of freedom? I must accept the responsibility, if I am to be a free, of deciding how I will react to these things. Will I say yes or no? In Oedipus Rex, you remember, after his fate had fulfilled itself, carrying out the edict of-- 8 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource What Shall I Do With My Life? (1971, New York Community Church, New York, NY) Description An account of the resource In this series, Thurman discusses the concepts of freedom in the actions of an individual, how freedom is negotiated in a fluid world of logic, time, and natural order, and how communities can act in freedom. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by ShaCarolyn Halyard AudioWithTranscription Audio that is shown through the 3Play Media embedded interactive transcript Audio with Transcription <iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-038_A.html" ></iframe> Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon New York Community Church, New York City, New York Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1970s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette What Shall I Do with My Life (III): The Experience of Community (New York Community Church, NYC), 1971 Mar 21 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 394-038_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource What Shall I Do with My Life, Part 3: The Experience of Community, 1971 March 21 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-03-21 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-8235591.761571 4975207.9418671)) Description An account of the resource In this third installment of “What Shall I do With My Life”, Thurman addressed the experience of community from the fluidity of consciousness. The line of delineation between life and death, love and hate, war and forgiveness are all discussed with regards to our own self-consciousness. Our experience of community is one with the unity of life and the aliveness of life. Still, it is the desire of man to stabilize those things that we need to guarantee our physical existence. Since the impersonal, social, and economic, and natural forces that impact our lives can not be controlled, we must choose freedom to accept the responsibility of our reaction to these things. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by ShaCarolyn Halyard community consciousness