1 10 351 https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/e32555fdd2c971357e7fa32c6281eb04.pdf 09075881b52bbe45854ca909e0d8d0ef PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-589_A.mp3 [MUSIC PLAYING] Pitts Theology Library Emory University (SINGING) [INAUDIBLE] He comes to us as of old. He came to the men by the lakeside who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same language, follow me. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, in the suffering, in the joys through which they shall pass in His fellowship. And as an inestimable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who He is. Men may come to God through nature. Men may come to God through the knowledge and the fellowship of other good men. But He who seeks God with all of his heart will, somewhere along the way, meet Jesus, joining them in their quest. And our Father, we rejoice truly that this is so. [MUSIC PLAYING] One of the most striking passages in Charles Morgan's play, The Flashing Stream, is this passage-- "all night, the fury of contending will raged in my mind until my bed seemed the tormented world that devils fill with anguish, mixed, and hungry violence. I waited for the day with muted sense, too dry to weep. Even my terror is dumb, as if while body wait, spirit were numb. At last, as though I lay upon a hill above a valley choked by envenomed thorns, trackless and dark I saw a spark strike down from heaven whence a stream was born, which, flowing from the zenith to the sea, fierce and unswerving as the zeal of saints, had yet the safe, reserved tranquility and gave to earth its genius unconfirmed the soundless passion of a single mind." Commitment-- one of the simplest and perhaps most commonplace observations about life as we observe it and live into it is this-- every expression of life seems to be ordered around some kind of structure, some kind of pattern, some kind of design. There seems to be, inherent in the very nature of life, a fundamental structure of order, of orderliness. That goes for human life, as well, for we could not be the conspicuous exception without seeming each in his own way to be utterly alien to the life process. It seems reasonable, therefore, to me that in those dimensions of life where the individual will and desire are operative, where the mind plays upon the stuff of experience-- it seems reasonable, I say, that in that dimension of living, we should come upon the significance and the necessity for order, for structure, for purposefulness. Either life is, as we live it-- is just one huge blob of shapeless jelly having no order, or life is malleable, is in some sense responsive and in some sense may be ordered by mind. Therefore, thinking about commitment, about the including of the necessity for commitment in life in your working paper seems to me to be utterly obvious. There are two or three observations about commitment. One is suggested in the words of the scripture lesson. Jesus says that he did not come to bring peace but a sword to introduce in the experience of His follower a radical principle in the fulfillment of which the individual may be torn from the very ground of his 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu emotional security and his family-- father against son, mother against daughter, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law. The enemies may be those in one's household. Pitts Theology Library Emory University What's he talking about? What's he talking about?-- that there is something in the nature of commitment that gives priority to what the commitment demands of the life. And every other commitment-- however important it may be-- every other involvement-- however important that involvement may be-- becomes secondary. That is why it is always a perilous thing to become committed. But what does it mean? It means that the individual discovers for himself a core of purpose. Which core of purpose expresses itself more and more in the will and the mind and all of the activities of the individual? Now commitments may not be on the side of that which is good. Commitment may be diabolical. A man may embrace for himself a hard core of purpose which had once unlocked the vast resources of the universe and puts them at his disposal. And at the center of that core of purpose, there may be the operation of an evil will and an evil mind. But because at the core of the purpose there is operating an evil will or an evil mind, we must not expect that, therefore, the resources of the universe will not be at the disposal of the individual. Let me turn that around a little. What I am saying is this-- that this is the kind of universe which is so dynamic in character, which is so vital, so alive, that when a living thing makes a concentrated, focused, completely devoted demand upon that vitality, the vitality responds, even though the use to which the individual is going to put the resource is an evil use. This is the kind of world in which the wicked do prosper. Why don't you think so? It's very interesting, isn't it, how much insight the so-called children of darkness have with reference to what I'm saying? Suppose you were a member of some sort of gang, if I may use a phrase like that or word like that. But you understand what I mean, I'm sure. Now if you were a member of one of these organizations, the ground rules are well established. And when you join or when you are conscripted or when you become involved in it and more and more moving towards the center of the core, the hard core of purpose that dominates this, all initiative as far as alternatives which are available to you and what you should do and so forth and so-- all initiative is taken out of your hand. And there is demanded of you an absolute devotion and an absolute loyalty. And only one mistake is tolerated, and after that, generally, you're liquidated. Now what is the principle here? The principle is very simple-- that where there is devotion, where all of the resources of the individual are put at the disposal of a single end, automatically vitality is released in that process, it remains, however, the insight of religion and the insight of the Christian religion, in particular, that this is also the kind of universe in which, ultimately, the evil enterprise cannot be sustained. But there is a time interval in the experience of the individual who is committed to evil ends in which, as you look at them, there is no difference in the quality of the devotion and the quality of 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu the morality and the quality of the surrender. Let the wheat and tares grow up together, Jesus says. You can't separate them, at a certain point, because in the stage of development, as you look at them, you can't tell which is wheat and which is tare. But ultimately, that which is evil is destroyed by the inner logic of its own life. And that which is good is sustained by the same process. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Now what does it mean, then, to commit your life? It means the finding of a purpose-- not merely a goal, not merely an end that is located somewhere in the future, but it means the finding of a purpose-- which purpose is capable, first, of getting the assent of your mind-- perhaps in that order, I don't know-- and then eliciting the response of your feeling towards and then, finally, the complete dedication of your life. And it has to be the kind of purpose in the living out of which you as a human being become more and more and more fulfilled, more enlarged, more creative. When a man's life is dominated in that way, he has at once, in very practical, simple terms, available to him always a basis, a reason for integrating all of the details of his life. All of these apparently random aspects of his living-- the so-called inconsequential things that he does-- all of these, more and more, are brought to the center of judgment at the bar of that to which he is fundamentally in all of his parts committed. And this becomes the basis of his ethic-what is right and what is wrong for him?-- not something that is way off in the sky or something that is hidden in an obscure manner in some book that is prestige-bearing and that may be sacred, but the basis-- the concrete and immediate basis-- for right and wrong for him becomes that which works against his commitment or that which works on behalf of his commitment. What shall we do with his money? He does not have to have a voice thundering from some Sinai to tell him to give one eighth here, 1/19 here, 1/30 here. The centrality of his commitment casts the decisive vote as to what he will do with his resources. Then what about his mind and the training of his mind and the developing of his powers? All of these become a part of the dedication. And there is nothing more tragic in human life than to see the trained mind, the mind that has mastered the discipline of a particular area of human knowledge, and at the center of that trained mind, there is no fundamental commitment, no hard core of metaphysical purpose. The result is that the trained mind is for rent. Anyone who is able to pay enough money can rent the trained mind and use the fruits of the creative processes of mind for ends with which the mind itself has nothing in common. I suggest, therefore, that one of these inevitable-- if I may put it this way-- one of the inevitable necessities for us is that as we live our lives from day to day, as we go through the arduous processes of the disciplining of our minds and our spirits, let us do these things with reference to some hard core of purpose-- which core purpose will more and more express itself in the ordered life so that we become, moment by moment, that to which we are dedicated so that if life has no meaning for you, if you are at loose ends, if nothing makes sense, if you can't find any reason for living, or if you are bored, choking to death with ennui, you have no alibi, for this is the kind of universe in which any individual, any living thing can find purpose for it. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And when you relate yourself to that, then all the meaning, all the vitality, all of the exhilaration, all of the promise and the possibility of the purpose to which you have surrendered will irradiate your little life, and the great God of life will stoop to enter your humble threshold if, upon the altar of your own heart, you make the great surrender. And if you are afraid to do that, your heart will begin to rot. Pitts Theology Library Emory University I came not to bring peace but a sword, even to turn a man against the normal grounds of his emotional security, says Jesus. Leave us not alone, O God, our Father, but kindle upon the altar of our hearts the flame of Thy spirit that we may need wonder any longer in the darkness of our days. Dismiss us now, O love of God, with Thy spirit. And grant unto us Thy peace. [MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) [INAUDIBLE] 4 � 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/394-589_A.html" ></iframe> Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s 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 394-589_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource Your Life's Working Paper, 1954 October 10 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> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1954-10-10 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. Description An account of the resource In this 1954 sermon, Thurman takes on the topic of commitment. Every expression of life is ordered around some structure or design, and Thurman reasons that human life is no different. To be committed is to put the demands of one purpose above all else, which in turns put all the resources of the universe at the disposal of the individual. Thurman says that the universe is in fact so life-giving and dynamic that even evil commitments are nourished, but they are not ultimately sustained. Thurman ends saying that we must organize our lives around some hard core of purpose, for this will set our lives in order and give meaning to the otherwise random and impersonal events of life. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/d41cd7fba156bfa289c38098241d50aa.pdf c89b1f180c7b7fa0cccad4e921389ccd PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-329_A.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O 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, O God, God. And to know my heart, try me. And to know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Everlasting. Amen. I want to take just a precious minute to express my appreciation for the privilege of being here and for being exposed in a primary, intimate way with the enormous energy of Father Bowler. I can think about it and get tired. [LAUGHTER] I don't see nobody like him. And I'm very glad to have the privilege of being a guest in his home last night for dinner, for seeing Mrs. Bowler and see how quietly and effectively she survives. [LAUGHTER] And I'm also glad to have the chance to meet the [INAUDIBLE] and to see face to face the father and mother of Len, who for some time was associated with us at the church of San Francisco, and to be present and worship at a place to which my sister comes and has found so much, that waters her own roots and revives and steadies her confidence in the goodness of life. I'm always embarrassed trying to remember all the nice little things that should be said, so take for granted that I've said them all. If for some reason I didn't say them, then those of you remember or those that I forgot. Now, I think that's everything. I want to read something. And then for a little while, let us think and work together. In every life, there are few special moments that count for more than all the rest because they meant the taking of a stand, a self-commitment, a decisive choice. It is commitment that creates the person. It is the pressing need to find some meaning for one's own life, to subordinate the whole of life to that meaning. It is this need, this inner aspiration, which is from God. All the ideologies, all the doctrines, all the formulae drawn up by man will pass, every ideal, too, grows old in its turn. Only the true and living God remains. Thus, the knowing encounter with the living God is the greatest possible human event, the human experience par excellence. The circumstances and forms of this encounter may be infinite in their variation. It always comes as such a surprise that the conviction is inescapable, that this is the doing of God, the result of His direct initiative in my own little life, in my own little life. It is very customary for us in the Christian tradition to concentrate, as indeed we should, on the absolute uniqueness of the life of Jesus Christ. What I'd like to have you think about this morning is the absolute uniqueness of any human life. No one like you has ever lived before and no one precisely like you will ever live again. It's almost terrifying to think about it. If it is true that no two snowflakes are identical, well, what about you and me? Well, you can run that out. One day there came into the village where Jesus lived a rumor that one of the prophets 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu was preaching down at the Jordan River. The word got all through the village and people were coming down there from all over Judea. Jesus decided to go. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And I wonder what was going through His mind as He went from His home down to the Jordan River. What did He expect to see, to find, to experience, to hear? The account of His experience could only come from His witness. And what is that account? When I was a boy in Daytona, there were two churches, two denominations that God recognized- the Baptists and the Methodists. Now, there were some other little odds and ends around, but they didn't count. I was a Baptist, and of course, the Methodist minister's son was a Methodist. We were the leaders of the two gangs at the public school. And we would argue about the merits of the Baptists as over against the Methodists and vice versa all the way to my corner where I had to go down my street, Whitehall, to go home. Then we would fight. Sometimes he would win. Sometimes I would win. There were two stock arguments. One, the Bible says that John said to Jesus, "Behold, I baptize you with water." And the Methodist minister's son would say, and "with" means to apply, that's why we sprinkle. And I would say the Bible says that Jesus came up out of the water, so he must have been down under the water. And that would be an intellectual draw, and then we would fight. When Jesus was baptized by John, it is recorded that the heavens opened and the spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove. And He, no one else, no one else, He heard the voice say, "thou art my Son, my beloved. This day have I begotten thee." And He was led by that tremendous religious experience into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, says the book. For what purpose? To find out how could He live His life in the light of that central commitment that central experience. In practical terms, what shall I do with my life? So I raise that question this morning. Whether you are 15 years old or 80, what shall I do with me, in my world, with my facts, my situation, my condition? We may get some help about this as we contemplate what happened to Him. After 40 days and 40 nights, it is written that He was hungry. And it may be that as He looked at the stones, they reminded Him of the way his mother's oak case might have looked, and all kinds of memories came back to Him. And He-- I didn't realize it, but I'm hungry. And I may have been hungry a long time. Have you had experiences in which you were so caught up, so involved in what concerned you, what was at stake, that you forgot to eat, that eating was something that belonged to some part of your past and you did not remember? All of a sudden now, He's hungry. And being sensitive under the experience of that great moment when the heavens opened, which was His unique and private and personal religious experience, this may be a clue as to what I must do with my life. Because the way I feel now, hundreds, thousands of my fellow men feel-- hungry, without this inspiration that I've had. So perhaps the best thing I can do with my life is to devote it to feeding the hungry. And this raises the question. How important is bread? There's an old Zulu adage which says, "full belly child says to empty belly child, be of good cheer. Only the empty belly child can say to the empty belly child, be of good cheer." If I am going to live my life in the light of this 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu commitment which I felt and sensed that moment when the heavens opened, what better thing could I do than to devote all of my energy to feeding the hungry? How important is bread? Pitts Theology Library Emory University How much of your time, as you look back over your life, how much of your time in hours, months, years have been devoted to bread, to bread, to bread? Has there been any margin left for dealing with any other dimension of your needs? This is what He was dealing with. What shall be my emphasis? Bread. Bread. Bread. I'm measuring my time, but I am in no hurry, so just, just let it do in your mind, how in your life, how important is bread? There's a Russian story about a man who dreamed all of his life about owning rich land. He was born poor, had always been poor. He came from a generation of poor people, and flashing before him always as a goal, as a neon sign going on and off, if I could just get rich land, I would want nothing else. Then he heard about a section of Russia where there was very rich land and any person could get as much of that rich land as he could run around from sunrise to sunset, if he gave to the owner of the land all of his possessions. So he went, he gave him all his possessions. Early in the morning, he started running. He ran for a while and then he remembered that he was so excited about what was going to happen the next day, he didn't sleep much during the night. Now he needed the energy. And of course eating was out of the question. He just couldn't swallow anything, but now he needed the energy. But he had to get back to the starting place before the sun went down. And he looked up and he saw that the sun was beginning to dip beneath the trees and he could put forth the last bit of energy had, his tired, weary feet be the tattoo on this rich land, rich land, rich, rich land, if I could just make it before the sun goes down. He made it and he dropped dead. They took him aside and buried him. That's all the rich land he could use. How important is bread? And the answer that came shouting from the hills to Jesus is what you remember, man must not live by bread alone. And there must have been a whole night between the first part of that sentence and the last word. Man must not live by bread. That's as far as His tired mind could get. Something's wrong with this. Man does live by bread. Man does not live by bread. Men live by bread. Does not. Does. And then finally, in His exhausted mind and spirit, one word came shouting from the hills-- alone. Man does not live by bread alone. But by every words that issues from the mouth of God, how important is bread? Well, you run it out. Let's look at the second one. And the Tempter carried Him to the pinnacle of the temple, and He said if you are the Son of God, or he may have said, if you are the Son of God, or he may have said, if you are the Son of God, or he may have said if you are the Son of God. God. Jump! You won't get hurt. God will give His angels charge. Concerning you, they will bear you up on their wings, lest you dash your foot against the stone. This is not an orderly world. This is not a logical world. This is not a world in which reaping and sowing of valid, antecedent in consequence. No, no. This world is fundamentally at its center, at its core, irrational. And if I can understand how the thing is put together, I can do as I please with my life. The people who can't do as they please just aren't as smart as I am. They don't know the angles, but I know the angles. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu I wonder what was going on in Jesus' mind when he wrestled with this. If I go up to the pinnacle of the temple and jump down, the possibilities are I will break my neck, Son of God to the contrary notwithstanding, because this is an orderly world, and anyone who acts as if it is not an orderly world tempts God to destroy him. And it is written, thou must not tempt God. Pitts Theology Library Emory University A world in which there is reaping and sowing, in which I am never free of the responsibility for my life, whatever may be my alibis and their bounds, a thousand reasons why I should not be responsible. And for many of us, living in various parts of this country, the great curse of our handicap is that there's ready made for us an alibi for failure. I can always say, well, and truly, I just didn't get the break, that, you know, we don't have a chance. And we don't, but life doesn't know anything about us. I've tried to tell it for nearly 80 years, but it doesn't hear. I only hear my responsibility to hoe my row, to plant my crop, and pray for rain, but to plant my crop. Plant my crop. If I jump, I'll break my neck. Life would make an exception in my case. Jesus, this is the nature of His temptation. Life will make an exception in my case because I'm Jesus. All natural law is suspended. Everything, the whole parade and the logic of existence, freezes until I can walk by. My righteousness makes me an exception to the rule. What do you think makes you an exception to the rule, you know? This is the tragedy at the crossroads where we are in our country now. We are not bound by the same kind of law, the same kind of logic, the same kind of balance, the antecedent consequence that poor struggling nations are bound by. We are an exception. When I lived in San Francisco in the earlier days at Fellowship Church, there was a youngster in our church, very gifted fellow. And his parents were very wise in some ways and not too wise in other ways. They felt that since he was the only child, that a part of their mission in life was to see to it that he would be denied nothing. And he got an automobile earlier than most of the other fellows did. And he was a rather reckless driver. He didn't think so, but people who were in the way thought so. [LAUGHTER] And his father came to talk to me one day. He said, will you talk to so-and-so-and-so because he will listen to you. I'm afraid that he's going to hurt himself in his car, and I did. And the young fellow said to me, well, I tell you, Dr. Thurman, people have wrecks who don't know how to drive well. And he went into this, because I didn't have a car, I've never had a car, I didn't know how to drive a car, so he was an expert and he talked down to me about this. And then he said finally, in great triumph, every curve in Northern California knows my name. Well, about, oh, a month after that, I went to see him at the old Stanford Hospital. He'd met a curve that never heard about him. [LAUGHTER] He thought because he was young, because he was innocent, that life knew this. The only thing life knew was that in terms of the delicate balance of nature, as expressed in physics and the rest 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu of it, he was running afoul of the logic of existence. He didn't know that he was 16, or whatever it was. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Do you think that life will make an exception in your case because of what you own, because of the power you have, or because you don't have any power? We are bound, all of us, and this included Jesus Christ, bound by the logic of antecedent and consequence of reaping and sowing. And if this breaks down, all existence falls apart. It is written, says the book, thou shalt not tempt God to destroy you. The Tempter carried Him to a high place and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world. And said, look out there. It must have been one of those heady moments. All of the kingdoms out there belong to me, and you want them for your God. And you can have them. There's just a little, a little ceremony involved. If you give yourself to me, then I will give you all of these. How can power-- whether it's ecclesiastical power, political power, economic power, filial power-- how can power have at its center a sense of responsibility for anything other than that which keeps power in power? Now, think, think. Is it possible to put at the center of power, moral and ethical responsibility, or is this always a threat to the integrity of power? How can I live and be true to my conscience, and at the same time caught up in the demands of forces over which I do not have any control? We're dealing with it now in all the discussion about the draft and all of this. It's upon us again. You remember-- and with this, I better stop-- a poet of the Civil War wrote a thing about his days. I don't remember all of it, but part of it is that my father drew a bead on the great course in those blazing years when the house was divided, bless his old heart. There never was truer or kinder, but my father did pray 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 wholeheartedly, never a doubt. But what about me and my dear battle? Could I put my prayers behind the slim Springfield bullet? Hardly. Except to mutter Jesus, Jesus. You and I part company. My country calls for my body and takes my soul also. Do you see those humans herded and driven against me? Turn away, Jesus. I have got to kill them. Why? Because these evils bring some vast, vague good to my country. I do not know. I do not know. I do not know. But today, my business is killing and my gods must be luck and the devil til this thing is over. Turn away, Jesus. Your eyes make me slack in my duty. My father could mix his prayers with his 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? So finally, I say, perhaps I say, I'm not sure, but perhaps I say I shall die, but that is all that I will do for death. I will not lead Him to any man's door. Am I a slave in the land of the living that I shall lead other men to death? I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for death. I am not on death's payroll. Are you? 5 � 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/394-329_A.html" ></iframe> Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1980s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette What Shall I Do with My Life? (sermon) (Episcopal Advent, L.A.), 1980 Mar 2 Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon Church of the Advent, Episcopal Diocese, Los Angeles 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 394-329_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?, 1980 March 2 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> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1980-03-02 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. Description An account of the resource In this sermon, Thurman explores the temptations of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. He urges listeners to think about the responsibility they have over their individual lives. Thurman says that Jesus went into the wilderness to wrestle the question: "What shall I do with my life?" How shall we live true to our conscience, even as we are caught in the demands of forces we cannot control? What is worthy of our ultimate commitment? It is our decisive choices, for and against, that make up the meaning in our lives – and none of us escape the responsibility of choice. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant |3|0.0000000|0.0000000|osm 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 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/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/92b4c44983bf0799350af3ffc62ff081.pdf 2063eb08c0af94620214024272436691 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-736_A.mp3 [MUSIC PLAYING] Pitts Theology Library Emory University Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm reading from my book Meditations of the Heart. He was a very ordinary looking man walking along the sidewalk. It was at the close of day, but darkness had not yet begun to spread its mantle everywhere. About three feet from the curbstone, a group of birds was pecking away at a small opening in the side of a pink paper bag. They were quarreling as they pecked because there must have been many suggestions being offered as to the best way to get the crumbs that were hidden there. The man walked over to the spot. The birds took rapid flight, settling at a respectful distance in the grass, watching. With his foot, he turned the bag over, examined it with some care, then reached down and emptied the bag and its contents of bread crumbs. When he had done this, he resumed his walk. As soon as he disappeared, the birds returned to find that a miracle had taken place. Instead of a bag full of hidden crumbs, only a glimpse of which they had seen, there was before them now a full abundance for satisfying their need. The man had gone on his way without even a backward glance. Of course, he could have walked away casting his glances back to feast his eyes on the results of his effort. Or he could have withdrawn far enough so as not to disturb the birds and watched them eat while he congratulated himself because he was kind to birds and extremely sensitive to their needs. But he did none of these things. He went on his way without even a backward glance. Any careful scrutiny of one's own life will reveal the fact that we have been in the predicament of the birds again and again. The thing one needed was somewhat in evidence but out of reach. With all of one's resources, one worked away at the opening, trying first one attack and then another attack. And then some stranger, some unknown writer, some passing comment from another, did the needful thing. We are, all of us, indebted to a vast host of anonymous persons without whom some necessity would not have been available. Some good which came to us we would have missed. It is not too far-fetched to say that living is itself an act of interdependence. However strong we may be or think we are, we are constantly leaning on others. However self-sufficient we are, our strength is always being supplied by others unknown to us whose paths led them down our street or by our house at the moment that we needed the light they could give. 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu We are, all of us, the birds. And we are, all of us, the man. It is the way of life. It is one of the means by which God activates himself in the texture of human life and human experience. We are, all of us, indebted to a host of others whose names we do not know, whose faces we may not recognize. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And yet sometimes, we do have the personal encounter with the individual who does come to our need at a particular moment when the need is most acute. I remember many, many years ago when I was just beginning to enter high school. And I was going from the little town in which I lived to a larger city where I would have the opportunity for attending a high school. Because at this period in my state, which is the state of Florida, there were only two public schools in the entire state that were open to me. I had been able to get an old trunk from a neighbor. And into this trunk I put my few worldly possessions. And I went down to the railway station to purchase my ticket and to check my trunk. I did this just a few hours-- maybe an hour or two-- before the train was due to leave. When I went to check my trunk, I was told by the ticket agent that he could not check my trunk because according to the law, the tag must be attached to the trunk itself, not to some part, some rope or something of that sort, the tie of the trunk. But it had to be attached either to the handles or some other part of the trunk. Well, it happened that this old trunk, which had been given to me, had no handles. And therefore, there was no place on the trunk to which the tag could be attached. And the rather unsympathetic ticket agent said, you will have to send this to Jacksonville by Railway Express. I had only enough money to buy a ticket, and I had perhaps $1 and 15 or 20 cents left over. And when he said this, I found that the cost of expressing the trunk was about $1.75, so my dreams were gone. And I sat on the steps of the railway station weeping, as we say, crying my eyes out. And then when I opened my eyes so that I could see just a little, I saw two rather large feet just in front of mine. And then my eyes crawled all the way up the full height of this man whom I'd never seen before. He was in the act of taking a bag of Bull Durham smoking tobacco out of the jacket that he was wearing. And he opened this bag of tobacco, and then he reached in another pocket and took out a cigarette paper. And all with one hand-- the left hand-- he emptied some tobacco in the paper, rolled it rather deftly, sealed it with saliva, put the cigarette in his mouth, took his teeth and pulled the cord of the sack of tobacco until it was tight, put the tobacco in his pocket, took a match out of another pocket, struck the match on his thumb nail, lighted the cigarette, took a deep draw, and then he said to me, boy, what are you crying about? And then I told him. And he said, how much does it cost? I said, oh, about $1.75. And then he said, come with me. If you're trying to get out of this town to get an education for yourself, the least I can do is to help you. So he paid for the express charges on the trunk. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu When the receipt was given to him, he handed it to me. And then he wished me well, turned, disappeared out of the door, walking down the railway track. I had never seen him before, nor have I seen him since. But because of what he did that particular morning, it was possible for me to begin the long pilgrimage which has led to all of the variety of experiences of my life. Pitts Theology Library Emory University We are all indebted to people whose names we do not know, whose faces sometimes we are not able to see. Therefore, the sense of gratitude, the sense of being indebted to life, is one that should not cause one to be depressed or to feel as if one were in some manner weighted down with obligations which he cannot pay or cannot repay. But rather should it give to one a sense of putting at the disposal of sensed needs all around one, some of the private resources of person which the individual has accumulated through years of living and through being the recipient again and again of things which have come without merit and without desert. This idea that our lives are lived open to the world-- without this feeling, without this experience, life would not be possible at all. I am not myself alone, but I am a part of all the life that breathes through me and through which I breathe. We are, all of us, indebted to a vast host by which we are surrounded. [MUSIC PLAYING] Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. [MUSIC PLAYING] 3 � 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 We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965) Description An account of the resource <em>We Believe</em> was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on one recording.<br /><br />"These meditations are no longer than 15 minutes, but highly representative of his style, influence, and search for common ground." - <a href="http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman">the Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman Collections at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.</a><br /><br /> <p style="text-align: right;"><em>We Believe</em> program listing in the TV Guide, March 29, 1958</p> <img src="http://pittsviva.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/webelieve-whdh-boston.png" style="float: right;" alt="webelieve-whdh-boston.png" /> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Dustin Mailman 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/394-736_A.html" ></iframe> Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette We are All Indebted! The Story of Stranger Paying for Trunk (65-12 (1); 65-3/26), 1965 Dec, 1965 Mar 26 Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1960s Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts 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 394-736_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource We are All Indebted! The Story of Stranger Paying for Trunk (1965-03-26) 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> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1965-03-26 Description An account of the resource In this recording, Thurman reflects on the ways in which our needs are so often met by people we do not know and how we are indebted to those unknown benefactors. In turn, we must try to be generous with others even when there is no possibility of merit or recognition. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Spencer Roberts https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/e41b3d22389d04b24e0837d93107a596.pdf bf8622919e30cea582ea06f7ae738c3a PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-182_A.mp3 [MUSIC PLAYING] Pitts Theology Library Emory University Let the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. As a background for our thinking together, will you listen to these two paragraphs? "It is a commonplace remark that our lives are surrounded with so much movement, so many pressures, so many demands, that our spirits are often crowded into a corner. As soon as we awaken in the morning, we are taken over by the ruthlessness of our daily routine. Once out of bed, the time table takes over. In some important ways, this is good. It means that there is a regularity and a structure to our days that make it possible for us to accomplish tasks which would be impossible otherwise. So long as a daily routine is a tool in our hands with which we give expression to goals and purposes, all is well. But there is another aspect to the matter of daily timetables-- an oppressive aspect. We are made prisoner by timetables. We become busy." Note the words. Not "we are busy," but "we become busy." "Within ourselves, we develop an inner sense of rush and haste. There is a kind of anxiety that is like the sense of impending doom that comes into the life when the spirit is clouded by too much movement. It is true that for many people, the demands upon their lives are so great that only careful planning in terms of a workable timetable can see them through. Even where the demands are not great and overwhelming, the economy, the efficiency of an established way of functioning, is undeniable. The purpose of such a pattern is not merely to accomplish more work, and with dispatch. But it is also to increase the margin of oneself that is able for the cultivation of the inward part. It takes time to cultivate the mind. It takes time to grow in wisdom. It takes time to savor the qualities of living. It takes time to feel one's way into oneself. It takes time to walk with God. Forsake us not in the tempests of our daily activities, our Father, but tutor our minds and spirits in the great tranquilities that deep within, we may be still, and know that thou art God." This feeling for the cultivation of the inward parts as one of the great protective devices against the invasion of all of the chaos of the outer world into our lives is one which must be profoundly and effectively honored. There is a story current about the musk deer in north India. It is a story first written by Mukerjee. It is said that in the springtime the dough is haunted by the odor of musk. He runs over hills and streams, and jumping over bits of bush, hoping always that he will be able to find the musk that haunts him. He hopes that around the next turning in the path, he might find it. Until at last, with his nostrils dilating, and his whole body one organic push in the direction of this which he seeks, he gives up, exhausted. No more energy, no more strength. And he falls with 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu his head resting on his still more tiny paws to discover that the odor of musk is in his own skin. The thing that he is sure he must have in order that he may find peace within his own spirit is not out there somewhere, but it is within. Pitts Theology Library Emory University In Paradise Lost, Milton expresses this in a very effective way. You may or may not recall that Satan has been thrown out of heaven. And he falls through space, until at last he lands on the Earth, or some other place that is not heaven. And he looks around, and he says, "is this the season, this the climb, this the place, that we must change for heaven? This mournful gloom for that celestial light? Be it so. Since he who now is sovereign can dispose and bid what shall be right, farthest from him is best." The mind is its own place. And in itself-- in itself, in itself-- can make a hell of heaven, or a heaven of hell. In recognition of the almost terrifying importance of the inner context out of which all of the individual's private and collective reactions to the raw materials of his experience must, at last, be made. Now, we are living today in the midst of such a multitude of pressures outside of ourselves. All the clues, it seems, to determine what we shall think deep within. We cannot make an independent free-flowing decision about the kind of soap we use, the kind of toothpaste we use, what kind of car we drive. Always, there is this mass attempt to invade the private life, and to involve us in such a series of outgoing activities, such a series of manifestations of external life, that most of our living is externalized. It's outside living. Now, this can be managed, I think, so long as the locus, the place of [INAUDIBLE] for this, is outside of ourselves. Whatever may be the nature of the chaos, or the confusion, or the pressures, as long as they are located in their dynamics and in their source outside of ourselves, then we can manage. But when the locust shifts from outside to inside, then we are in real trouble, because all of the devices, all of the processes, all of the resources that are needful to build up the inward parts so as to provide some inner core of stability, some sense of leisure, for instance, even though the activities may not be abated-- but if the individual has a sense of leisure, then he moves in the midst of the context of his demands with a certain quality of what Emerson calls the quality of the independence of solitude, even though the individual is caught in the traffic of his life. Now, this sense of leisure-- this sense of time-- is important, because it gives me the whole spirit a chance to breathe, to go in and out, to gather energies from hidden sources of vitality within. It is this sort of thing that the Hindu poet of the Middle Ages, Kabir, expresses. He says that "I laugh when you say that a fish in the water is thirsty. Do you seek the real, the true? Go where you will, from Benares to Mathura. If you have not found your own soul, the world is unreal to you." Let us, therefore, cultivate habits of mind, habits of thought, that will tend to steel us within. Let us read those things that are capable of bringing a sense of tranquility, and a sense of timelessness, that we may negotiate the intervals of our involvement with the traffic of life with dignity and with meaning, and with an abiding confidence. [MUSIC PLAYING] 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Pitts Theology Library Emory University Let the words out my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, Oh, Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. 3 � 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 We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965) Description An account of the resource <em>We Believe</em> was a color television program that aired on WHDH-TV, Channel 5, in Boston on weekday mornings at 11:15. From 1958 to 1965, while Howard Thurman was Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, he was the host of the Friday morning show. Each message has a brief introductory section with bells and music before Thurman delivers his short meditation. Some recordings have been edited to remove the intro. In some cases, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust produced tapes with two messages on one recording.<br /><br />"These meditations are no longer than 15 minutes, but highly representative of his style, influence, and search for common ground." - <a href="http://archives.bu.edu/web/howard-thurman">the Howard Thurman and Sue Bailey Thurman Collections at Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.</a><br /><br /> <p style="text-align: right;"><em>We Believe</em> program listing in the TV Guide, March 29, 1958</p> <img src="http://pittsviva.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/webelieve-whdh-boston.png" style="float: right;" alt="webelieve-whdh-boston.png" /> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Descriptions by Dustin Mailman 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/394-182_A.html" ></iframe> Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette Timeless and Timebound, 1959 Feb 27 Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Location The location of the interview, speech, lecture, or sermon WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts 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 394-182_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource Timeless and Timebound (1959-02-27) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1959-02-27 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. Description An account of the resource In this recording, Thurman discusses how timetables and schedules can affect us in negative and positive ways. Timetables can sometimes be oppressive, and so "we become busy." In other cases, they allow us to become more efficient and thus find more time to cultivate our inward part. Thurman ends by focusing on the importance of cultivating habits that "steel us within" so that we might find inner tranquility among the turmoil of life. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Spencer Roberts https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/7798f5c98cee268180558d8e09feda2b.pdf 736012cffb851c68e651f71c18985431 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-606_A.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University I'm going to share some things that have meant a great deal to me in the course of the years. And I'm not sure at all that what I shall do tonight will be in accordance with the prescription that was given before I stood, because it is very difficult to make a decision, to live publicly what is, in some ways, beyond any formula of expression and in the presence of so many people. But I'd like to indulge myself tonight by doing the things that-- reading some things and maybe commenting. Things that are significant to me and things that, for their own sake, I will enjoy doing. And I want to say at the very beginning that the things that I read and whatever comments I make, they are read, in a sense, for the renewal of my own spirit, which needs renewing, certainly at the end of a week like this one. But we shall wander along. What you find that is interesting to listen to, you listen to. And then what you find that isn't interesting to listen to, you just live your own private life in the midst of the congregation. The first thing I'm going to read is something that marks, for me, one of the great watershed moments of experience. Sometimes it seems as if life is not merely alive and dynamic and energized, but that life is personal, even in its most impersonal aspects. There's a moment when your specific needs encounters the thing that makes the difference for the rest of your life. And it does not seem to be by plan or design. And of course, if a person be religious, it is the hand of God. What would it be if you happen to have missed it? Would that have been the hand of God? it is all very curious to me. I remember, many years ago, going to California from Washington, where I lived, going out to Los Angeles to open the Los Angeles Sunday Evening Club. It was during the Depression, and I went the long way across the fabulous state of Texas. Because there was not enough money to buy my ticket. And in those days I was too shy and embarrassed to write to the Los Angeles Sunday Evening Club and say, will you send me a cheque so that I can get there? I was proud. I wouldn't hesitate now, but I was more defensive then, you see. So I just took the map and studied the various junction points along the way. You could travel by day coach for seven and a half mile. And I had 10 days to make the journey from Washington to Los Angeles, and I had boys, students of mine, who were living everywhere. And my first port of call was Cincinnati, where I had a couple of days getting dividends on meals that I had given them. And then, the next stop was New Orleans, and from New Orleans to Houston. And then I decided that I would take the long stretch from Houston to El Paso. But Mrs. Sterman had asked me so many times to go, when I was in Texas, to go to San Antonio to see the Alamo. And she's the historian in the family. I have a sense of history, but that's all. So the train stopped in the place where the Alamo is. I couldn't think of it. It was there for a half hour, from 12:00 to 12:30. I got off the train and walked around a little, and I didn't like the way the place looked. Just, oh, 25 minutes after 12:00, I decided that I would go on. So I got back on the train. And as I walked to my seat, I was literally turned around and made to take my bag down from the rack 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu and take my top coat and move rapidly to the door. And I jumped off the train as it pulled slowly out of the station. And I stayed in San Antonio until midnight and got the next train, the midnight train. Pitts Theology Library Emory University And when we arrived the next afternoon at Yuma, Arizona, just as we reached the so-called yard of the station, just a half a mile before this point, I noticed that the train stopped. And to the left, here was this tremendous wreck. You may remember it. A brakeman went berserk and threw a switch when a very fast freight train was coming, and this freight train plowed into the passenger train. Some 35 or 40 people were killed. The coaches were on their side, and huge holes where acetylene torches had cut out sections of the steel to pull dead bodies out. And this is a train that I got off. And by the same curious bit of mystery and existence, there were some people I know who decided, at the last minute, to take the train. So that we don't know much about-- the only thing we know is that when, at the critical moments of crucial need, if the word is spoken that makes the difference, all the rest of your life is changed. And if the word is not spoken, the rest of your life is not changed. And I'm not sure that because the word was spoken to one and not spoken to the other that this represents some special dispensation of the grace of God. I do not know. The only thing I know is that at a critical time in my own life, I ran across this, and it has been one of the great beacon lights on the horizon of all my days and all my nights. And this is the paragraph. I thought I had it. There it is. "The new mother, when she looks down at the little head upon her breast, whispers in her heart, oh, may you seek after truth. If anything I teach you be false, may you throw it from you and pass on to higher and deeper knowledge than I ever had. If you are an artist, may no love of wealth or fame or admiration and no fear of blame or misunderstanding make you ever paint with pen or brush an ideal or a picture of external life otherwise than as you see it. If you become a politician may no success for your party or your yourself or the seeming good of even your nation ever lead you to tamper with reality and play a diplomatic part in all the difficulties which will arise in life. Fling yourself down on the truth and cling to that as a drowning man in a stormy sea flings themselves onto a plank and clings to it, knowing that whether he sink or swim with it, it is the best that he has. If you become a man of thought and learning, never with your left hand be afraid to pull down what your right hand has painfully built up through the years of thought and study if you see it at last not to be founded on that which is. Die poor, unloved, unknown of failure, but shut your eyes to nothing that seems to them the reality." There isn't a day of my life, in 25 years, that some aspect of this has not passed through my mind, whether it has done any good or not. Now I will read something else. This is from John Drinkwater's Abraham Lincoln. And this has been very significant to me because of what it has to say about the very difficult problem that the individual faces who believes that the doctrine of persuasion is valid as over against the kind of logic and sometimes the efficiency of varying forms of violence. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu It's not a solution, but I reflect upon it many times when, in my own living, I am forced to decide what kind of human being I want to be, and not let the circumstances of my life determine the kind of human being I should be. So these are the lines. Lincoln is speaking. Pitts Theology Library Emory University "I beg you not to harass yourself, ma'am. I, too, believe war to be wrong. It's the weakness and the jealousy and folly of men that make a thing so wrong possible. But we are weak and jealous and foolish. That's how the world is, and we cannot outstrip the world. Some of the worst of us are sullen, aggressive still, just clumsy, greedy, pirates some of us have grown out of that. But the rest of us have an instinct to resist aggression if it won't listen to persuasion, and you never know when the zero moment has come, when aggression will no longer listen to persuasion. You may say it's the wrong instinct. I don't know. But it's there, and it's there in millions of good men. I don't believe it's the wrong instinct. I believe that the world must come to wisdom slowly. It is for us who hate aggression to persuade men always against it and hope that, little by little, they will hear us. But in the meantime, there will come moments when the aggressors will force the instinct of resistance to act. Then, we must act earnestly, praying always in our courage that never again will this thing happen. And then we must turn, again and again, to persuasion. This appeal to force is the misdeed of an imperfect world, but we are imperfect. We must strive to purify the world, but we must not think ourselves pure, above the world." Well, I don't know about that. I don't know. Now let me read something else. I read this in a sermon. I always like to read something before I talk or before I speak, whatever it is that I do, primarily because it gives your audience a chance to have their minds focused, and you don't have to use any of the material of your ideas to get this to happen. Then, your read is, in itself, significant, so significant, that it will stand for itself. And when the minds are-- when the noise of the silent workings of the mind has been stilled by something that is beautiful and significant, then it's up to you to hold the minds that are in focus. And I read this at a sermon, as a forward to the sermon. And because our services are broadcast, someone heard it and knew who the poet was. I didn't know the poet. I simply knew that I clipped it out of The New Yorker quite some time ago, but in wearing it around, I had lost the name and so forth. And this person who heard it wrote the poet, who was a retired professor of philosophy at Amherst. And he wrote me a letter in which he sent the full poem and said he was very glad to know that there was enough vitality in Boston University for somebody to dare to read something like this. So he was very happy about it. But this is a part of the poem. "Now we are ready to look at something pretty special. It's a duck riding the ocean 100 feet beyond the surf. No, it isn't a gull. A gull always has a raucous touch about him. This is some sort of duck, and he cuddles in the swells. He isn't cold, and he is thinking things over. There is a big heaving in the Atlantic, and he is a part of it. He looks a bit like a Mandarin, or the love of Buddha, meditating under the bo tree. But he has hardly enough above the eyes to be a philosopher. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Pitts Theology Library Emory University He has poise, however, which is what philosophers must have. He can rest while the Atlantic heaves, because he rests in the Atlantic. Probably, he doesn't know how large the ocean is. Neither do you. But he realizes it. And what does he do, I ask you? He sits down in it. He reposes in the immediate as if it were infinity, which it is. That's religion, and the duck has it. He has made himself part of the boundless by easing himself into it just where the boundless touches him. The people of the Middle Ages were more like this duck than we are. They took life as it presented itself and ran it up in Spires of Guthrie. They crossed few oceans, but they floated on the sea of time. And a cat is more like this duck than we are. We can radio to the moon and get back a pip for an answer, but a cat can make a hearth rug a haven in the infinite or launch four kittens into life in a cracker box by the furnace, purring with pride because she has tuned in on cosmic waves. I like the little duck. He doesn't know much, but he has religion." Eight-year-old Johnny was very serious when I called him into my office at the hospital and explained how he could save the life of his little sister. Mary, age six, was near death, a victim of disease from which Johnny had made a miraculous recovery only two years earlier. Now, Mary's only chance was a blood transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the illness. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, Johnny would be the ideal donor. Johnny, I asked, would you like to give your blood to Mary? He hesitated a moment, his lower lip trembling. But I had seen many people older than Johnny who were a little frightened by the idea of giving blood, so I thought no more about it. Then, he smiled and said, sure, Dr. Morris. I'll give my blood for my sister. The operating room was prepared and the children wheeled in-Mary pale and thin, Johnny robust and almost cherubic. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned broadly. As Johnny's blood siphoned into Mary's veins, her pale skin began to turn pink. There was complete silence as the operation proceeded. But then Johnny spoke in a brave little voice I will never forget. Say, Dr. Morris, he said, when do I die? It was only then that I realized that what that moment's hesitation, that almost imperceptible trembling of the lip, had meant when I had talked to Johnny in my office. He thought that giving up his blood for his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he had made his great decision. Now, some of you may remember this. I read this for a very private reason. "A sparrow who lived in the eaves of a church and whose ideas were somewhat erratic met a pigeon one day from a church o'er the way whose opinions were very dogmatic. They stopped in their search for a midday repast, and in hunting, they both were astute. And I hate to relate, they engaged in debate that led to a frightful dispute. Quote the pigeon, I hold theological views considered both learned and wise, so without more delay, I will show you today the only straight road to the skies. Said the sparrow, your effort would be unrepaid, for I follow a different road. And it causes me grief to hear your belief in 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu such a ridiculous code. Then, without more ado, I'm sorry to say, they engaged in a battle most gory, till each was bereft of his sense and breath, and the curtain here falls on their story. Now, a strange little bird from a blossoming tree had witnessed the scene with surprise. Then, with unfettered wing and a heart that could sing, he took the straight road to the skies." Pitts Theology Library Emory University And now this, from Felix Salten's Bambi that you may remember, but this is one of the things that I read aloud to myself several times during the year-- not because I'm morbid, but because I read it. "The leaves were falling from the great oak at the meadow's edge. They were falling from all the trees. One branch of the oak reached high above the others and stretched far out over the meadow. Two leaves clung to its very tip. It isn't the way it used to be, said one leaf to the other. No, the other leaf answered. So many of us have fallen off, tonight we are almost the only ones left on our branch. You never know who's going to go next, said the first leaf. Even when it was warm and the sun shone, a storm or a cloud burst would come sometimes, and many leaves were torn off, though they were still young. You never know who's going to go next. The sun seldom shines now, sighed the second leaf, and when it does, it gives no warmth. We must have warmth again. Can it be true, said the first leaf, can it really be true that others come to take our places when we're gone, and after them still others and more and more? It is really true, whispered the second leaf. We can't even begin to imagine it. It's beyond our power." It makes me-- It has to do with tenderness. It's a great gift to be tender without being soft, to be gracious without being ingratiating. Well, yes. "In a pottery factory here in Cincinnati, there is a workman who had one small, invalid child at home. He wrought at his trade with exemplary fidelity, being always in the shop with the opening of the day. He managed, however, to bear, each evening, to the bedside of his wee lad, as he called him, a flower, a bit of ribbon, or a fragment of crimson glass-- indeed, anything that would lie out on the white counter pane and give color to the room. He was a quiet, unsentimental man, but never went home at night without something that would make the little face light up with joy at his return. He never said to a living soul that he loved that boy so much. Still, he went on patiently loving him, and by and by, he moved that whole shop into positively real but unconscious fellowship with him. The workman made curious little jars and cuts upon their wheels and painted diminutive pictures down their sides before they stuck them in the corners to be burned at burning time in the kiln. One brought some fruit in the bulge of his apron and another engravings in a rude scrapbook. Not one of them whispered a word, for this solemn thing was not to be talked about. They put them in the old man's hat, where he found them. He understood all about it, and believe it or not, cynics as you will, but it is a fact that the entire pottery full of men of rather coarse fiber by temperament grew quiet as the months drifted, becoming gentle and kind. And some dropped swearing as the weary look on the patient fellow worker's face told them beyond the mistake that the inevitable shadow was drawing nearer. 5 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Pitts Theology Library Emory University Every day now, someone did a piece of work for him and put it on the sanded plank to dry so that he could come later and go home earlier. So when the bell tolled and the little coffin came out of the lonely door, right around the corner, out of sight, there stood 100 stalwart working men from the pottery with their clean clothes on, most of whom gave a half day's time for the privilege of taking part in the simple procession and following to the grave that small burden of a child, which probably not one of them had ever seen." I refer to this book some of you. It's called The Witnesses by [INAUDIBLE], and it's a book of poetry written by this English one, 3/4 of which are aspects of the life of the master. Of all the things that I have seen and read on my journey, these have some quality that is unique. I want to read one or two from it. They may not be-- well, I'll read them. The first is The Rich, Young Ruler. We like to read about the rich, young ruler, because we know that it doesn't apply to us. Oh, but that isn't so. "What must I do, master, to gain eternal life? From my youth, I have kept the commandments, honored my parents. Theft, murder, lying, adultery, all these by God's mercy, have passed me by. What, then, must I do, master? What more must I do? Sell all, he replied, and follow me. An easy say. He, a carpenter or carpenter's son, sacrificed nothing. And his man, Peter, smirking self-righteous, what did he lose but some worn nets, a boat share, and trade in the market? It wasn't myself I was thinking of, ease and possessions, but the responsibility of wealth towards it dependents. What of them if I had obeyed him? What of my servants? What would become of them? That's what I tell myself now, but do I believe it? Then, silent, I walked away, watching my sandals hit the--" Oh, he was a gifted man. "Then, silent, I walked away, watching my sandals, while his voice, the voice of my heart, followed me homeward. In misery, I stopped by the lake, hid by the crowd wall. I heard him speak of the Kingdom of God, the camel, the needle." It's too much energy. Where is it? There's one I want to read here. This is the Phoenician woman. I'm always impressed by the story of the Phoenician woman, the story of the-- well, in some of the translations, the Syro-Phoenician woman. The woman of another race Jesus encountered. And what I want to say now, I don't want to do any violence to anybody. But this story, of the Syro-Phoenician woman, as found in the gospels, made it possible, I think, for me to discriminate between Jesus of the doctrine and Jesus of some of the dogma. It's been a hard [INAUDIBLE] for me. I've had very great difficulty in all my life in trying to find a satisfying basis for what-- a satisfying basis in the faith, in the Christiantry, for what my own deepest bottom insight says to me that religion must mean to human beings, that it has to be-- 6 � 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/394-606_A.html" ></iframe> Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette Thurman on Thurman (59-0/02), 1959 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 394-606_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource Thurman on Thurman, 1959 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> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1959 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Description An account of the resource In Part One of this two part recording, Howard Thurman shares a series of readings and stories that have been significant to him throughout his life. Put alongside one another, one can get a sense of Thurman's concerns and interests, ranging from God's mysterious hand in the working of history, the dynamics of life and death, to the insistent search for truth against all other temptations. Ultimately, this recording offers us a window into Thurman's thought and reflection by way of those things that Thurman himself claims to be in conversation with. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/407844f110c7f64d4e7efd6056852026.pdf 48cfa4885046f3ed92ca2ad058a041e5 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-606_B.mp3 Pitts Theology Library Emory University And when I talk this way, I recognize that there is always the need for the parochial feeling-- the sense of community that goes with the wellbeing, that must be characteristic of a religion which has to do with the ultimate destiny of man. So I read the gospels with great intensity and scrutiny, seeing if I could find a clue in the Gospels, which would a [? vulch ?] on the side of the inclusiveness of the faith. And then I ran into this story, of this, our finishing moment, and it was a great relief to me. And I say once again that in what I have to say now in a time, it is not a part of my purpose, intent, disposition, any other words you might think of, to do any violence to anything that is precious to anyone else. Please do not misunderstand me. I speak out of what I am responsible for before God, and not before anybody else. The Syrophoenician woman. Do you remember the connection in which it occurs in the New Testament? Jesus had been having a very great difficulty because He traveled from down south, way up to Tyre and Sidon, almost incognito, because He needed to get His disciples off to a quiet place and regroup his forces. And into this kind of retreat, with the great issues of His mission before Him, here comes this non-Jewish Syrophoenician woman, pressing her claim. But all of His mind and thought were involved in trying to answer the question that the opposition of Israel had posed for His spirit. So she went, and the first thing He said-- and I could almost hear Him-- it is not mete, woman, that I take the children's food and give it to dogs. This is what He told her. And not Fifth Avenue poodles even, but a dog in Palestine was a mangy scavenger. This is not mete that I take the children's food and give it to dogs. And you know what she said? Oh, let me read this. I want to. And then I will stop. It's long after time. She has followed us all day, master. Hook-nosed, insistent, yapping at our heels and commercial greed. Her husband, a boat builder, builds boats of gopher wood, her daughter, it seems, possessed of a devil, but you, Master, a Jew, are supposed to exorcise. Talk to her, Master. Send her away. Tell her you came to the children of Israel not to finish and dull. The [? port ?] couldn't bring himself, you see. Just couldn't quite bring himself in his poem, to put these words on the lips of Jesus as they are in the Gospel. The disciples tell him, talk to her. Send her away. Tell her you came to the children of Israel not to Phoenician dogs. He turned on me sternly, but his voice smiled. "You hear what they say?" He demanded. Is it right, do you think, taking the children's food and tossing it to the dogs? Master, I replied-- this is a Phoenician woman. Feeling the bonds between us, our humor we shared alone. Even dogs are allowed scraps from the table when the children reject them. His face smiled, too. You have understanding and faith, mother. It will happen as you desire. It was true. Coming to the hill above Tyre, weary beyond all weariness, I fell on my knees, letting my eyes search where feet could not follow, looking down on the cluster of evening ships, the causeway with its moving chain of carriers and the [? equimuric ?] shells outside the dye works. 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu I saw her coming from the bazaars to meet me, my daughter. Her, white, conspicuous among blues and purples. Pitts Theology Library Emory University She did not need to speak. She walked up the hill as a girl walks, whose arms are her own. But for me, the story of me is a little more than this. For what the Syrophoenician said to the Master was, the world is one. And you can't do for Israel without doing for others. There is an inner logic that binds all life. And I did not blink. But even God can be God in His world, if one single, solitary human soul is left out. The only kind of God I can worship. I don't know about you, but I could not be happy in heaven if my brother's in hell. I could not be. While there's a lower class, I'm in it. While there there's a criminal element, I'm of it. While there's a man in jail, I'm not free. And any religion that is less than that cannot speak to my deep needs. It may speak to yours, I don't know. 2 � 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/394-606_B.html" ></iframe> Time Period The decade in which the recording was produced. 1950s Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette Thurman on Thurman (59-0/02), 1959, Side B 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 394-606_B Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard 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. Title A name given to the resource Thurman on Thurman (continued), 1959 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1959 Description An account of the resource In Part Two of the "Thurman on Thurman" recording, Howard Thurman speaks about the story of the Syrophoenician woman in the Gospels. Thurman says that this story means a great deal to him because, for him, it is a clue into the inclusiveness of the faith. For Thurman, seeking out God's inclusivity is a responsibility to his own religious experience. Thurman says that the Syrophoenician woman's ultimate message to Jesus and to us is that the world is one, and that Jesus could not do for Israel without doing for others. Thurman finishes saying that this i the only kind of God that he can worship: A God that speaks to this deep need for inclusivity, for "I could not be happy in heaven if my brother's in hell." Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III. https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/files/original/2e09ef3754b7a2a9d289cfbfc73db54b.pdf a48c2b93addfd96c5db94395749ff518 PDF Text Text Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu 394-212_A.mp3 My name is Howard Thurman. It is the purpose of this cassette, or better, the purpose of this recording, to tell in very simple words the experience out of which the Howard Thurman Educational Trust initially emerged. Pitts Theology Library Emory University When I was a boy living in Daytona, Florida, the public school for Negro children went only to the seventh grade. This, as it seems to me now, was a calculated affair in order that the community, and particularly the Board of Education, could resist the pressure from the property owners in the three segregated areas of the town from being successful in getting a public high school for their children. The logic was very simple. If the children in the three segregated areas could only go as far as the seventh grade, and if it were impossible to enter into high school unless one had completed the eighth grade, then in the absence of any students who have completed eighth grade, there would be no necessity for a high school. When I finished the seventh grade and I went to work, as all boys did of my age and generation, the principal of our grade school was so impressed with what he thought of as my promise that he urged my mother to make an arrangement with the man for whom I worked to let me take two hours for my lunch each day and work an hour longer in the afternoon or at the end of the day. This was arranged so that I could spend an hour each day at the public school during the noon recess in order that the principal might teach me the eighth grade. At the end of the letter, he said to the superintendent that he had a boy who was ready to take the eighth grade examination and could pass it. Logically, as far as the superintendent was concerned, there was no such boy because no such provisions had been made in the public school system, whereupon the principal said, I have been teaching him on my recess period every day, and he's ready. And I would like to give him the examination. Instead, the superintendent said, I will give him the examination. And he did. I passed it. And in a reasonably short time after that, the eighth grade was instituted in our community. And now I was ready for high school, but there was no high school, as I've said. In the state of Florida at that time, there were three public high schools for black children in the entire state of Florida. But there were several private schools, church-related or church-supported schools. One was in Jacksonville, the name of which was the Florida Baptist Academy. I wanted to go there because I had a cousin who lived in Jacksonville. He had told my mother that if I came to Jacksonville, I could live with him and his wife, do chores around the house, and he would give me one meal a day, and I could go to school. Of course, the fact that the school was five miles away was just a matter of very little concern. My problem was to get ready and to get enough money to pay my railroad fare to Jacksonville. This may seem very simple to you who listen to this tape. But all of the money that I made in the summer, such as it was, I gave to my mother to help her in the support of the family. For you see, my father died when I was seven years old, and there were two sisters and a grandmother, for whom my mother was responsible. The problem of getting the $5 was a very interesting one to me. All of the youngsters in our community belonged to an insurance company into which we paid $0.05 or $0.10 a week-- I 1 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu don't remember-- but it was a sick and accident insurance. You pay this amount of money per week, and then when you were sick, if the doctor filled out your blank, as we called it, and you turned it in, you would get $5 a week for as long as you were in bed, up to a certain number of weeks. Pitts Theology Library Emory University I decided that in the fall, I would have to get sick for a week. so as to get $5 in order to get out of town. I arranged with the doctor to come to see me and give me some medicine, which I needed because at the end of the summer in Daytona Beach, all growing children needed some sort of purging. The customary thing was calomel at night, castor oil in the morning to get some of the poison out of your system. I suppose at any rate, this was the custom. So in early September, I had sent for the doctor, and he came. And he gave me calomel and castor oil and took my temperature, and I stayed in bed for a week. He filled out my policy, and I got the $5. The next problem was too get a trunk to go out of town, a trunk into which I could put my clothes for out of town. There was no trunk in our family at that time because we had not traveled or we had not been anywhere. But a neighbor whose son had gone to Tuskegee some years before-- I did not even know him-- had left an old trunk there when he moved away. It was a steamer trunk, but it had no handles and no lock. She gave it to me to help me in my plan. I put my little clothes in it, such as they were, and I roped the trunk, sent it down to the railway station. I packed my little suitcase, bid my mother and my grandmother and my sisters goodbye, and I went to the railway station to leave on the 3:00 train in the afternoon. I bought my ticket, and then I went around to the Railway Express, or the baggage room, to see about checking my trunk on my ticket. When the ticket agent saw my trunk, he said, boy, you can't send this trunk on your ticket because the regulation is that the tag has to be attached to the trunk, not to the rope. But since there were no handles, the only thing that I knew to do was to have him attach the tag to the rope, which could not be done. He said, you will have to send it by Railway Express. I had no money to do this because after I bought my ticket, I had about a dollar and 25 or 30 cents left. I left the baggage room crestfallen, walked around to the front of the station, sat on the steps with my head down, crying my heart out, because all my dreams were gone now. I would be embarrassed, humiliated. My parents would be embarrassed and humiliated. And my hope for getting an education had vanished. At last, I opened my eyes, wiped the tears, and I saw two large feet, two large brogan shoes, as we called them, standing right in front of me. I let my eyes crawl from the shoes all the way up, until they rested on the face of a man who was standing there. As I looked at him, he was reaching into his jumper pocket for a sack of Bull Durham tobacco. He took it out with his left hand, opened it. And then into another pocket, he took a piece of cigarette paper. He emptied some of the tobacco into the cigarette paper, rolled it into a cigarette, sealed it with saliva, put it in his mouth, took one of the strings, end of the string, of the sack of tobacco, pulled it tight with his teeth, put the tobacco back in his pocket, reached in another pocket to get a kitchen match, struck the match on his thumb, lighted the cigarette, inhaled deeply, looked down at me, and said, boy, what the hell are you crying about? I told him, whereupon he said, come with me. 2 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu Pitts Theology Library Emory University And he took me around to the baggage master's place, and he said, how much does it take to send this boy's trunk to Jacksonville? He was told. He counted the money out from a rawhide leather bag. He gave it to the agent. The agent wrote him a receipt. He handed the receipt to me. And he said, boy, if you are trying to get out of this so-and-so town to try to get an education and improve yourself, the least I can do is to help you. Now the extraordinary thing about this event is that he had never seen me before, and I had never seen him before. He told me goodbye, wished me well, and disappeared down the railroad track. But if he had not done this, I would never have left home. I could never have received an education. And I would not be where I am at this moment. On my way to Jacksonville on the train, I made a promise to God. One, that when I finished my education and got a job, the first thing that I would do would be to send a letter to my mother to tell her that she did not have to work anymore. She could come home and not be burdened by cooking 7, 8, 9, 10 hours a day, seven days a week, to keep our family together, that she could take her ease, spend her time doing the things she loved-- having a garden, her chickens, and visiting the sick and that sort of thing. The second thing that I promised God was that every year of my life, as long as I earned any money, I would try to do for some student, who was determined to educate himself or herself, what that man had done for me. And all through the years, I have kept this promise. In 1961, the Howard Thurman Educational Trust was organized under the laws of the state of California. There were three original trustees-- Mr. Gene K. Walker, a businessman in San Francisco, and who had been associated with me as chairman of the board of the Church for the Fellowship of all Peoples when we bought the building in which the church now is housed, Mrs. Thurman, and I. We were the three trustees. Since that time, the number of trustees has increased. And they are attorney Boyce Gross, who is a practicing attorney in San Francisco, Dr. Steven Webster, a professor of education in Berkeley at the University of California, and Dr. Nathan Huggins, professor of American history at Columbia University, and Mrs. Ellen Klemperer, a farmer and a very distinguished member of the society of friends living in Richmond, Indiana. The work of the trust has developed along three fundamental lines. First, we give what may be called enabling scholarships. And that is, our funds are so limited that we are unable to enter into the big field of endowed foundations whose income is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Instead, our scholarship program deals with individuals based upon personal knowledge and contact, either the personal knowledge and contact of a trustee or of some faculty person located on a particular campus who can relate to a student as counselor, friend, and so forth. In other words, we are not in the scholarship granting market, as it were. We have limited funds. We select students with whom we, or someone who represents us, can have a personal relation of guidance, of counseling. At the present time, our scholarship program is confined largely to schools in the southern part of the United States. Nevertheless, always, since our very beginning, we have had some students who were in colleges or universities in other parts of the country. The second part of our work has to do with the intercultural aspect of human relations. It is one of our convictions in the trust that experiences that are meaningful between people are more significant than all the fears and prejudices and anxieties that divide them or that separate them. 3 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu And if you can multiply experiences of unity between peoples, you can undermine any gulf that separates one man from another. Or to state it more accurately, you can undermine any barrier that separates one man from the other. Pitts Theology Library Emory University The way by which this has been done in the history of our trust is to help our own community, the black community, mine its own past and its own history to develop more and more a sense of its own root, a sense of his own idiom, a sense of its own heritage, and the way in which its root, idiom, heritage have influenced the whole stream of American life. It is this sort of thinking that caused us initially to invest in the Afro-American Museum, which started in Boston during the period when Mrs. Thurman and I were a part of Boston University. And now, the seed money, which we gave to that institution there, has blossomed into a very significant institution contributing much to the understanding and to the rich cultural and ethnic significance of the life of an old and very beautiful city. The same thing is true in the Historical Society in San Francisco. The other aspect of that dimension of our work has to do with a series of international rooms, which have been established on several of the campuses in the south. We regard these rooms as windows on the world, so that students on the campuses where the rooms are operated can have a sense of the life of other cultures and other peoples to whom they have not been exposed and whose habits and customs and matters and faiths are not a part of their own familiar life. On two of these campuses, the international rooms have developed into a very significant international program, to which once a year, some person from another culture and another land is a guest of the campus. A series of competitive essays are written around some theme that has to do with world civilizations, cultures, or with intercultural contacts and philosophies and so forth. This has been a very important part of that aspect of our work. Now the third aspect has to do with the dissemination of tapes, of books, of ideas that represent a lifetime of my own thought and reflection and experience as a man who has undertaken to live his life on the basis of a very profound religious commitment. These tapes are in process of being made available for listening rooms, for campuses, churches, and so forth. This gives some broad feeling about the work of the trust. A final word has to do with wherever we get our money. The trust is a public foundation rather than a private foundation. That is to say that the trust is supported by a wide range of people numbering between 300 and 400 scattered all over the United States and Canada. The first great giant step towards our financing took place when I was being retired from Boston University. Usually, the custom there is that when a professor or a dean retires, there is a dinner, and he's given a Paul Revere bowl or silver platter or some memento that marks the years and the affection with which he is held. When President Case made such a proposal to me, I suggested that I would not want that. I preferred having a public meeting to which all of my students and friends in the community would be invited, and this meeting would be in honor or as a tribute to a kind of ministry rather than to a person. And anyone who wanted to contribute something to that kind of ministry could contribute to the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, which was already in existence and had been in existence for some three years. This was decided upon. And on the evening of the public 4 �Pitts Theology Library The Howard Thurman Digital Archive Transcription thurman.pitts.emory.edu meeting, the chairman of the committee from the university presented the Howard Thurman Educational Trust with a check amounting to about $10,000. This was the first big grant that had come to the trust. And with that, our program was launched. Pitts Theology Library Emory University Since that time, our support has increased. Our contributions range from $2 a year to $1,500. There are four endowed scholarships now, the income from which will provide about $1,200, $1,400 a year for students. There are some people who contribute $10 a month, some $500 a year. It is that kind of base, financial base. Certain other groups, individuals-- I think now of one family foundation, for instance, that has underwritten all of our expenses of operation. That is, they pay a secretary, telephone, operating expenses. All of the officials of the trust-- the treasurer, the bookkeeper, myself as chairman, all of us function without pay. The office of the trust is at 2020 Stockton Street in San Francisco. We maintain there all of the facilities. There are tapes and books and records, a whole collection of things that represent the fruits of my own mind that are being distributed or made available for the widest possible use. And the income from the sale of these creations goes into the support of the trust. It is my conviction that the most difficult thing in the world is to be able to administer effectively to the needs of an individual with money, or with any other resource of that sort, in a manner that will make it possible for the person you help to forgive you for being able to help you. It is so hard to maintain a healthy self-estimate while at the same time seeking help from someone who is not bound to you by ties of obligation. As difficult as it is to ask for help to meet one's own needs, whether these needs be very private and personal or have to do with the fulfillment of ambition or a dream, it is more hazardous to help another in need without patronizing him. The whole issue of putting one's resources at the disposal of another's needs and acceptance of those resources is one of the major moral problems of our time. How may a person expose his needs without humiliation? And how may a person give of his resources to meet another's needs without arrogance? It is because I feel this so deeply that the whole quality and character and sensitivity of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust is shaped. We want to be able to provide the funds wherever we're able that can make a big difference not only in a young person's effort to fulfill his dreams and his hopes, but also to enable him to be free and unencumbered by a weighty sense of embarrassment because he received help. We are committed to this. And it is our desire that as the years unfold, more and more of our resources may be put at the disposal of the individual needs and of the wider cultural needs as well as the spiritual growth and renewal of the young people, in whose faces the sun is shining, and on whom the future of the world and our times rest. 5 � 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/394-212_A.html" ></iframe> Original Title Title as transcribed from tape cassette Thurman on the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, 1975 Feb 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 394-212_A Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thurman, Howard Title A name given to the resource Thurman on the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, 1975 February 7 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975-02-07 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 rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/80x15.png" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a>. 2019. Description An account of the resource In this audio recording, Howard Thurman shares the background and the intentions of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Thurman traces his own educational journey through the hardships of segregation and financial struggles, which were only overcome by the support of friends, family, and strangers. After a fateful encounter with a man that helps pay his ticket to high school, Thurman makes a promise to God: for every year of his life, he will try to do for some student that that man had done for him. The Howard Thurman Educational Trust is the manifestation of that promise. The Trust makes it mission along three priorities: 1.) enabling scholarships and personal mentorship to students, 2.) encouraging intercultural experiences and understanding, and 3.) sharing the thoughts and reflections that have come from Thurman's life of religious commitment. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Description by Rodell Jefferson III.