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394-787.mp3
This is tape number ET43 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman-- this is side one entitled, "Resistance to the Social Order."
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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
I'm reading this morning two paragraphs from Olive Shreiner's "From Man to Man." These
words are very appropriate for this season. On that broad road of opposition to law and authority,
along which stream the millions of humanity too low to grasp even the value of laws and
institutions about them, resisting them from an ignorant and blind selfishness which makes them
believe they are improving their own condition by violating them.
There are found walking men of a totally different order-- white robed sons of the gods with the
light on their foreheads, who have left the narrow paths walled in by laws and conventions not
because they were too weak to walk in them or because the goals to which they led were too
high, but because infinitely higher goals and straighter paths were calling to them-- the new
pathfinders of the race. These men, who rise as high above the laws and conventions of their
social world as the mass who violate them fall below, are yet inextricably blended with them in
the stream of souls who walk in the path of resistance to law.
From the monk Telemachus, who, springing into the Roman arena to stop the gladiatorial
conflict, fell violating the laws and conventions of his society-- a criminal, but almost a god. Up
and down all the ages man has been on earth, there have been found these social resisters and
violators of the accepted order-- the saviors and leaders of men on the path to higher forms of
life. It is true that if persistently and with the rigor from which none escaped alive you could in
every land exterminate the resisters of social law, you might at last produce a race on earth in
which even the wish to the power to resist social institutions will have died out.
Your prisons might be empty, your hangman and judges without occupation, but what would you
have done? Seeking to cut out humanity's corns, to remove its cataract, to amputate its diseased
limbs-- your world would have put out its eyes, cut off its tongue, maimed its legs-- unable to see
or move or express, its heart would beat slower and slower and death would come. There is no
net which can be shaped to capture the self-seeking, ignorant violator of law which shall not also
capture in its measures the hero, the prophet, the thinker, the leader, the life of the world.
The year is 1935, the place is a small village in the native state of India called Bardoli. The
setting is a tent in an open field, over which flies the flag of the Indian National Congress. And
in this tent, a small group of people are gathered together-- Mahatma Gandhi, his secretary, two
of his most trusted leaders, and three Americans representing a delegation of friendship to the
students of India, Burma, and Salam.
We had been talking with Mr. Gandhi for 3 and 1/2 hours. At the end, when we were ready to go,
he said, will you do me a very special favor? And, as spokesman for the group, I said, yes, if it is
within our power to do it. He said, I'd like for you to sing a song for me. And I said, I don't sing,
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but I'll try for you. What song do you want? He said, will you sing, "Were You There When
They Crucified My Lord?"
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Because, he said, I feel that in this spiritual-- and here I speak as a Hindu-- in this song, there is
an insight about Jesus of Nazareth, which has been a source of comfort and inspiration to me
through all the years of my life since I first encountered his life on the pages of the gospel.
We sang the song. And, as we sang, this group of Hindu men sat with their heads bowed and
their hands in the attitude of prayer or greeting. And, when it was over, for some three or four
minutes, there was no sound, only the feeling of the quality of the prayer which was surrounding
us. I have thought about that many times since-- that the experience that is being enunciated or
underscored or felt or talked about all over the Christian world today is an experience that stands
at the center of human life, that transcends the categories of doctrine and dogma and theology,
even the categories of any particular faith.
And that is that society takes two attitudes which really, in some, are one attitude towards two
groups of people with which it has to do. Those who violate the law, who stand over against the
established order, and who feel that the things that they do represent their strength as contrasted
with the weakness of the order by which they are surrounded-- they regard the whole order as
their enemy. And anything that they can do in order to level things out, they are under some
judgment to do.
And we classify these people as criminals-- as people who have no respect for law and order.
They are positive and destructive. And over against them, or along beside them, there is another
group of people who also are violators of the law, but they transcend the law. They are always
thinking about a time when the contradictions of the society by which they are surrounded will
be wiped out. They're thinking of a time when all of the tensions by which men are surrounded-tensions created by their collective arrogances and bitterness and hostilities-- will be resolved.
And they stand out on the horizon and, each is a threat to the society, so that the society tries to
lift the valleys-- to fill it in so that these people who are regarded as anti-social in that sense will
be lifted up to a sense of community. And it also tries to scale down the peaks-- those people
who are always on the horizon pointing to a better day whose judgment stands over against the
society. Now, these are the two.
So along beside the very good man who is being killed by his society because he disturbs the
conscience and makes the mind uneasy and jolts the spirit and gives to the society a sense of
collective guilt-- and those who are the reckless violators of all the decencies of life-- and a man
must make up his mind. And this is the meaning of today, in essence.
A man must make up his mind the things for which he is willing and able to stand with his life
and the thing against which he is willing and able to stand. And when he makes up his mind and
takes his position, he must be prepared to absorb all the violences that will be poured out upon
him because of his position. It is then that he discovers one of the most important and intimate
secrets about human life-- and that is that death is not the worst thing in the world.
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There are some things in life that are worse than death, and one of those things is to be unwilling
and unable-- because of fear or because of weakness-- to stand by the thing which you know to
be true and right, and to take the consequences for it. For, if a man does not do that-- if he is
unwilling to do that, then something within him begins to disintegrate, and his very heart begins
to rot.
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For what do you stand, really? And are you willing to back the thing for which you stand with
your mind, with your heart, with your resources, with your life? If you are, you join the great
army of those who stand as the pathfinders and in the ranks of those who are the redeemers of
the world.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
This is tape number ET43 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two, entitled, "Self Realization and Acceptance."
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
I'm reading from "The Inward Journey." Fierce, indeed, is the grip by which we hold on to our
lives as our private possession. The struggle to achieve some sense of individuality in the midst
of other people and other things is very grim. We are always surrounded by persons, forces, and
objects which lay siege to us and seek to make of us means to their ends-- or at least to their
fulfillment. The demand is ever present to distinguish between the self and not self.
There are moments of enthusiasm when with mounting excitement, we absorb ourselves in
something beyond ourselves. But, after this happens, we fight at length to get back home to come
again into the familiar place-- to be secure and our own boundaries. Again and again, the process
repeats itself, wearing down the walls that shut us in. Of course, a man may, by early resolution,
frustration, or bitter experience, withdraw more and more from all involvement.
By this process, he seeks to immunize himself against hurts, and from what seems to be certain
disaster. Behold such a man-- his spirit shrinks, his mind becomes ingrown, his imagination turns
inward. The walls surrounding him become so thick, that deep within he is threatened with
isolation. This is the threat of death. Sometimes his spirit breaks out in reverse by giving voices
to inward impulses, thus establishing by the sheer will to survival a therapy for the corrosion of
his spirit.
For all of this, religion has a searching word. Deep within are the issues of life, it says. The rule
of God is within, it says. If thou hast known the things which belong unto thy peace, it says,
there is a surrender of the life that redeems, purifies, and makes whole. Every surrender to a
particular person, event, circumstance, or activity is but a token surrender-- the temporary
settling of the life in limited security.
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These are not to be ignored, but they are all passing and transitory. They end in tightening the
wall of isolation around the spirit. They are too narrow, too limited, and, finally, unworthy. The
surrender must be to something big enough to absolve one from the little way and the meager
demand. There can be no tranquility for the spirit unless it has found something about which to
be tranquil. The need for a sense of peace beyond all conflict can be met only by something that
gathers up into itself all meaning and all value.
It is the claim of religion that this is found only in God. The paths to him vary, but the goal is
one. One of the contributions of which we are aware as coming from modern sociology is the
notion that we are not born human-- that we become human in a human situation. It is in the
moment when the individual finally is able to distinguish not merely between the self and the not
self-- between the this and the that-- but when he is able to see in the not self, which is maybe his
mother, his nurse, or his sister or brother, to see himself and to discover himself in the other
person-- as if he moved quite without awareness or without self consciousness, as it were, into
the life of the person closest to him.
And then, standing there, looks back upon himself and says, oh, that is I. Now, this is the
process-- so that we need each other in order that we may be ourselves. This idea that the human
spirit can abide functioning in isolation is one of the great delusions. We cannot abide isolation.
Even when we become emotionally disturbed so that more and more we withdraw from life and
there is what may be regarded as a kind of inward turning of the mind and the gazing of the self
on the inward parts-- so much so that there is no contact with the outer world-- no contact with
other human beings.
And the phrase that is used is that the person has withdrawn from reality. The person has
somehow, because of his malady, has become disassociated from the external factors in his
environment which confirm him. Now when this happens, and all the doors of the cells seem to
be completely closed and sealed, then a miracle takes place. Deep within the psyche of the
individual, a therapy begins to move. And what happens? The individual hears voices. This
keeps him somehow in communication.
Even though he's out of contact with all reality and out of contact with every other person, and
he's all pulled within himself-- when he gets deep in the center of himself, here he hears voices.
And these voices establish what? Establish a sense of community for the sick psyche. And, if this
keeps on and if this holds its place until at last these voices can be stilled by the sounds of voices
that are outside of him, he is cured.
Now, we cannot abide in isolation. I remember when my younger daughter was a baby and she
decided one day that she would express her hostility towards my sister by hitting or doing
something. And my sister did not respond in any way, she just looked at her and took it. And
then my daughter became almost hysterical. She said, why don't you fight me back? Why don't
you hit me? Why don't you do something to let me know that you know that I'm here?
For, if you let me know that you know that I am here then, in that knowledge which you have, I
can find the clue to the knowledge of myself. We cannot abide isolation. We must find ways to
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break down the barriers that shut us in, because we need the acceptance of the other in order that
we may be able, at last, to accept ourselves.
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This is the word of religion that this is how God relates to man-- as one of the wonderful minds
of the past expressed it-- thou hast made us for thy self, and our souls are restless till they find
their rest on thee. And, in fact, it may be that the Greek god himself cannot abide the splendid
austerity of isolation. And it may be that in order for God to be God in his world, he must come
to himself in me and in you and in others.
And when he comes to himself in me, then it means, at last, that I can find my way into the
meaning of myself in him. We cannot abide isolation. We are made for each other. We are made
for community. We are made for God, and I cannot be what I must be without him, and he
without me.
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.
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We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
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<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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-787.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Resistance to the Social Order; Self-realization in Acceptance (ET-43; GC 11-30-71), 1971 Nov 30
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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394-787
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Resistance to the Social Order (1962-04-20); Self Realization and Acceptance (1963-11-08)
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
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1962-04-20
1963-11-08
Description
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In this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reflects upon Olive Schreiner's "From Man to Man," and his time spent with Gandhi. Each of these reflections speak to Thurman's conception of truth, namely, what happens when one is forced to reject truth. For Thurman, justice, resistance, prosperity, etc. all find themselves hubbed in a longing for the truth to be manifested.
In this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman reads and reflects from his work, "The Inward Journey." He notes that all of humanity is on a journey towards God, and that on this journey one cannot travel alone. He notes that one can never abide when experiencing isolation. It is through one another that one finds themselves and God, and vice-a-versa.
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Dustin Mailman
Bardoli
death
development
From Man to Man
Gandhi
George Cross
heart
Hinduism
inclusivism
India
individuality
Isolation
justice
life
mysticism
odyssey
Olive Schreiner
oppression
personalism
prayer
process
prosperity
protest
reality
resistance
satyagraha
spirituals
Telemachus
The Inward Journey
truth
universalism
Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?
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394-782.mp3
This is tape number ET29 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman-- this is side one entitled, "Life under the Scrutiny of God."
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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
I'm reading a meditation from "Meditations of the Heart." Long live life-- and there is something
which seems utterly final about the end of a year. It means that we are one year older. And this is
a fact definite and inexorable. We are 12 months closer to the end of our physical time span, one
year closer to death. It means that, in some important ways, we are taken farther from or brought
closer to the goal of our living-- whatever that goal may be. It means that some crucial questions,
which were unanswered 12 months ago, have been finally and decidedly answered, and whatever
doubts there may have been about the result are completely removed. Now we know.
It means that we are in fuller or lesser possession of ourselves and our powers than ever before.
During the passing of the 12 months, experiences have come into our lives which reveal certain
things about ourselves which we had not suspected. Some new demand was made upon us which
caused us to behave in a manner that was stranger to our established pattern of life, and we felt
shocked, surprised, enraged, or delighted that such was possible for us.
We met someone with whom we built the kind of relationship which opened up to us new worlds
of wonder and magic which were completely closed to us a year ago. It means that we are wiser
by far than we were at year's beginning. The circling series of events upon whose bosom we
have been wafted cut away our pretensions, stripping us bare of much beneath which we have
hidden even from ourselves.
When we saw ourselves revealed, there was born wisdom about life and its meaning that makes
us say with all our hearts this day that life is good and not evil. It means that we have been able
to watch as if bewitched while the illumined finger of God pointed out a path through the
surrounding darkness where no path lay-- exposed, to our surprised gaze, a door where we were
sure there was only a blank wall-- revealed the strong arms and assuring voices of friends when
we were sure that, in our plight, we were alone-- utterly and starkly alone.
All of these meanings and many more counsel us that because life is dynamic and we are deeply
alive, the end of the year can mean only the end of the year, not the end of life, and not the end of
us, and not the end of time. We turn our faces toward the year being born with riding hope that
will carry us into the days ahead with courage and with confidence. The old year dies, the new
year is born-- long live life.
It is one of the most commonplace and, yet, searching insights of religion-- that man lives his life
always under the scrutiny and under the judgment of God. This is not an option which is before
him. It is not a choice which he makes-- and, upon that choice, rides the meaning of the decision.
It is rather something that is given. It is a part of the totality of man's experience that his life is
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not altogether his own-- that he is created and is responsible for the living of his days, whether he
is mindful of that responsibility or not.
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This suggests to my mind, then, that with reference to the events of one's life, there are always
two basic levels that are involved. The first level is the level of the event itself-- the simple facts
of the event-- the elements that went into it, the ordinary aspects of it. The second level is the
meaning that these events may have for the destiny of the individual-- the meaning that they may
have for the meaning that the individual's life has.
These two levels, then-- one, the practical ingredients of the event-- the simple elements that go
into the raw materials of the experience. The second-- the deeper, interpretive significance of
these events in terms of the purposes and the goals and the dreams and the destiny of the life.
For instance, a man may have a quarrel with a friend. The quarrel may be the result of a simple
series of events, all of which enter into a kind of complex. And, when the reaction to this
complex is effective, the result is anger or frustration or the rupturing of a relationship which, up
to that time, had been moving along rather smoothly. Now, this is the surface dimension. These
are the elements. One word spoken in anger, reaction to the word in anger-- the result, a ruptured
relationship. The result, something that means that reconciliation is in order.
Now, this event may be dealt with merely in terms of what happened. And, when it is dealt with
in that way, perhaps there's a simple apology and harmony is restored and reconciliation
becomes the order. Or the event itself may reveal to the individual something about himself-something about his character-- something about his intentions, his motives-- something about
his dreams, and even his goals. And, in the light of this second consideration, the event is more
than an event.
Or, take something else-- a person may be ill-- the result of some ordinary disease or some
accident-- something of that sort. And the illness is dealt with at the level of the illness. Skilled
hands come in or skilled minds bringing to bear upon the illness all of the disciplines of the
healing arts and science-- and the person is well. But the illness may be something more again. It
may provide an opportunity for the individual to take a long, hard look at his life.
He may see certain things that have been operating in his life-- that affected him in one way or
another, things of which he was not mindful until the event took place. Then the event, the illness
becomes something that is revealing not merely about the meaning of his life, but about the
meaning of life in general-- or about the meaning of God in the individual's life.
I will take something that happened last fall when two men-- one representing the United States
and one representing Russia-- just men who ate and slept. Men who grew angry and were
pleased. Men who were just ordinary human beings in one sense. But, for a moment in time, they
became all mankind and held in their hands decisions that affected not merely mankind in
general, but the birds and the trees and the grass and the sky and the water.
These two men looked into the deeps on which they stood and made decisions. Their decisions
resulted in one more chance for the rest of the world. Now, we made regard this event as
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something that took place merely at the level of politics, at the level of the relationship between
two great countries, or something which had to do primarily with elements that were diplomatic.
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Or, we may regard it as something that, through a shaft of light on the kind of darkness in which
the world is living-- and, as a result of that moment and the reprieve from it, all kinds of new
intents and new purposes and new resolutions and new resources may be brought to bear upon
the meaning of peace and the meaning of the destiny of man in the world. Our life is lived under
the scrutiny of God.
All of the events of our lives may be dealt with at two levels-- one, the simple, direct, superficial
aspects of the event. The other-- the deep, searching meaning that the event has for life and its
significance.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
This is tape number ET29 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two entitled, "Order in the Totality of Life."
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
I'm reading this morning from "The Inward Journey." The story of our lives is the old story of
man. There is the insistent need to separate ourselves from the tasks by which our days are
surrounded. The urgency within us cries out for detachment from the traffic and the complexities
of our involvement. There is the ebb and flow of anxiety within us, because always there seems
to be so little time for withdrawal, for reflection.
These are the thoughts which find their way into our spirits when, at last, the time of quiet is our
potion. It is no ordinary experience to spread our lives before the honest scrutiny of our own
selves. But there is also no escape from such a necessity. The obvious things in our lives, we
pass over-- taking them for granted. This may be a source of weakness and despair.
Deeply are we aware of limitations in many dimensions of our lives. We are conscious of the
ways in which and by which we have undermined the light, the truth that is within. Sometimes
we do call good things, bad, and bad things, good. There are some things in our lives which we
have not looked at for a long, long time. We make as an act of sacrament the lifting and exposing
of these things before God with tenderness and compassion.
There are some things within us that are so far beneath the surface of our movements and our
functioning that we are unmindful, not only of their presence, but also of the quality of their
influence on our decisions, our judgments, and our behavior. In the quietness, we will their
exposure before God, that they may be lifted to the center of our focus-- that we may know what
they are and seek to deal with them in keeping with our health and our inmost wisdom.
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All of the involvements of our lives and family and primary community relations, in our state
and country, and in the far flung reaches of the things that we affect and the things that affect us
and our world-- all of the concern that is ours for various aspects of the things that affect us and
that we affect, these we spread before our own eyes and before the scrutiny of God.
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We turn to thee, our Father-- not out of a sense of worth or lack of worth, not out of a sense of
pride or lack of pride, but we turn to with our total life, because this seems to speak directly to
our deepest need. What thou seest in us that is weak and unworthy of our best, wilt thou handle
in thine own way?
What thou seest in us that is strong and vital, wilt thou encompass in thine own way? We yield as
best we can everything-- everything, our father, holding back nothing. We wait for the
benediction and for that healing. We wait, oh god, in the stillness of our own spirits. It is no
ordinary observation and the other very simple one-- that all of man's life is structured.
That is to say that all of man's life has a quality of orderliness in it-- a kind of logic which gives
to the totality of a man's life what may be called a structure of dependability. And what is true in
a man's life is rooted, really, in the world about us-- in the world of nature. There is an
orderliness here-- a fundamental structure of dependability which makes it possible for mankind
to explore the world about him which is, in a sense, responsible for the kind of affinity that the
mind seems to hold with the external world.
This is the basis for the fundamental religious affirmation upon which one of the most important
and far-reaching activities of our contemporary world rests. And that affirmation is, in essence, a
belief in the orderliness of the world-- a belief in the orderliness of the world of nature. And it is
because of this fundamental belief, which is religious in character, that men go forth to explore
the world of nature, feeling always that what there is in the context of their lives-- which we call
the world of nature-- may be found a principle of order, a structure of dependability, which is
also the same thing that is in the mind of man.
And when the order in the mind of man makes primary and direct contact with the order in the
external world, then the result of that contact men call understanding. And when they understand
some aspect of the world of nature, then they are able to deal with it in ways that are creative,
productive, and dependable.
The same thing is true with reference to our own bodies. There is an in-built or a built-in kind of
integration in the organism so that you become aware of some aspect of your body only when it
is acting out of character-- when the orderliness is broken, when the structure of dependability
seems to collapse.
For instance-- I am not aware of my little finger, really, until my little thing is unable to act as the
little finger should act as a part of the family of fingers. When it is unable to become an active,
participating part of the order of the hand-- the structure of dependability that holds the hand and
makes the hand function as a unit-- when the little finger is unable to carry its part, then I say that
something is wrong with my little finger.
4
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
My little finger is ill. It is mal. It has broken the structure of dependability, it is an alien. And I
say that my finger is cured when, once again, it has been restored to its place in the family of
fingers. Now, if this is true in the world of nature, if it is true with our bodies, it would seem to
me that it is true also with our minds and thus the whole construct of values by which we seem to
get meaning in life.
Pitts Theology Library
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And if, therefore, I act in ways that violate my own inner sense of meaning, my own inner sense
of value, then my life moves in a tilted place. And we have contemporary words we use about it.
I say that I feel guilty, I feel as if I have done something wrong, I feel as if I have done violence
to something-- always when the inner order is ruptured, this is a thing that happens.
Now, so significant is this process and this structure of dependability, that if I become
emotionally disturbed, for instance, and I go to someone who is able to help me-- a doctor or an
analyst or a psychiatrist or someone-- or a counselor-- one of the first things that he does is to see
if somehow he can lead me gently over the story of my life until I come to the point at which
something moved out of character-- something broke the rhythm, something interfered with the
inner integration.
And, once he locates it, then he tries to help me help myself restore this thing so that I will be
whole again. Now, in the language of religion, this means that a man lives his life in the presence
of God under the scrutiny of God. Hence the psalmist says that God broods over our lives and
that we are responsible for our living. And, whether we bar our knee before an altar or make any
kind of confession before a god whom we recognize, there is within us this structure of
dependability. And, when we violate it, something goes awry. And it is for this reason that
religion insists that all of man's life is under the scrutiny of God.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
5
�
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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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-782.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Life Under the Scrutiny of God; Order in the Totality of Life (ET-29; GC 11-24-71), 1971 Nov 24
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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394-782
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Life Under the Scrutiny of God (1963-01-04); Order in the Totality of Life (1962-05-25)
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1963-01-04
1962-05-25
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from his text, "Meditations of the Heart," to speak about wisdom and the ways in which one becomes wise. In his reading, Thurman notes that when contemplating what it means to age, one discovers that in the span of a single year one grows tremendously: relationally, in one's awareness of self, sensitivity, etc. He continues, it is when one makes meaning of an event, rather than merely objectively describing an event, that one can begin to make sense of life.
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from his text, "The Inward Journey," reflecting upon what it means to be fully integrated. It is in holistic integration, Thurman suggests, that one finds solitude and interdependency.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Dustin Mailman
aging
anxiety
darkness
dependability
dynamism
embodiment
event
friendship
harmony
illness
integration
inward journey
life
light
magic
meaning
meditations of the heart
order
psalmist
quiet
rebirth
reconciliation
relationship
restoration
Russia
solitude
tension
United States
urgency
vitality
wisdom
year
-
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e4d4199999472f1adc9e4c468349d50d
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-781.mp3
This is tape number ET28, from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 1, entitled Creative Order in Life.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[BELLS RINGING]
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 continuing from Jane Steger, Leaves from a Secret Journal. About the tree, what I want to
know is why the sap ever started to run up the tree, up the trunk, along the limbs into the buds to
spread them out into leaves. Perhaps the way to find out would be to get inside the tree one's
self-- a nebulous personality to run with the sap up the trunk, out the limbs, into the leaves and
maple keys. And there, hear the command to stop.
The end is as amazing as the beginning. Why does the urge of life cease with leaves and seed
vessels? How does it know when to stop when its type is completed? If this command to halt
didn't come at the right moment, the breath of life that is in the tree might go on beyond leaves
and bloom into all sorts of green, fantastic abortions that would spoil the type.
The beginning is a marvel. The ending is an amazement. And I suppose that was, in the mind of
God, the finished thought of a maple tree, as definite and complete as its spark of life in the seed,
although He no doubt sent the thought forth in several types before the present one was achieved.
It is a miracle that trees stop with themselves, that maple trees are only apple trees-- that maple
trees are only maple trees, that apple trees are only apple trees, and oak trees are only oak trees.
The urge of life might so easily have flowed on into a green maelstrom of confusion-- a sort of
wild, crazy quilt of creation.
The same, of course, is true of every type. Why do pigs stop at pigs and human beings at human
beings? Of course, we human beings still have animal tendencies, and no doubt we are potential
angels, but in spite of what we have, then, or may be, we are human beings. Each type may have
come up from something else and be slowly drifting on to another development.
Nevertheless, at each stage, it is itself and not a confused medley. As I sit writing, I am
surrounded by numberless finished articles-- books, chairs, tables, desks-- all of which were
conceived by the mind of man. Then, as I look out into the garden, I see infinitely more things.
An innumerable company-- grass, trees, flowers, bushes-- all of which the mind of God created
and all of which are separate, distinct, and finished, with no confusion, no intermixing of forms.
Truly, the finished type is an astonishment. I never really thought of it before. The urge of life
always amazed me, but I never until now realized the marvel of it stopping when each creation is
1
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
completed. It might so easily go on into confusion or shatter the type as a child breaks his bubble
by blowing too much breath into it.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It might, that is, if at the back of creation was nothing but a blind force. How can anyone believe
that? One might possibly if one thought only of the initial urge of life, but surely not when one
sees it always stopping in definite forms and definite types.
Look at that fat dictionary over there on the shelf, so solemn and well-informed. Do I think that it
was created out of chaos? No, I don't think so. Did anyone ever see a trumpet vine forget its type
and try to overflow into something else-- into a maple tree, for instance? Or a maple tree forget
that its urge to life should stop with sharply pointed leaves rather than with round edges of an
oak?
Nobody ever did unless the types had been crossed by outside interference. What keeps them all
so loyally true to their own plan? Surely, if there were nothing but a blind urge at the back of
them, they would long ago have lost their way in the maze of life and gone off into a confusion
of all kind of chaos.
This is a rather extraordinary and exciting notion to my mind, and it is well worth our reflecting
upon. It is true that the beginning of life is quite miraculous. As a matter of fact, the big the idea
of beginning is itself as a concept almost beyond the grasp of the mind.
But as fundamentally exciting as may be the notion of beginning, it is even more astonishing-this built in quality that seems to be inherent in any particular form of life that tells that form of
life how it is to shape itself and when it is to stop developing. Suppose your foot did not ever
stop growing, that there wasn't anything that you could do to stop it. It would be quite a fantastic
arrangement.
But there is built in the very life structure of the body something which, in recent times,
biologists, or cytologists more specifically, have discovered. And they call it a certain quality in
the cell. A coding, C-O-D-I-N-G-- a coding in the cell that determines what the development of
the organism will be-- which cells will become eyes and legs and feet and hair and what the
dimensions are.
This is a part of the Constitution that is inherent in the cell itself. And in reading some time ago
about the growth and development of eels, I was amazed at the discovery that some of the
investigators were trying to determine, why was it that certain eels that came up from the
Sargasso sea, born there, five miles below the surface of the sea, found their way all the way up
to the Atlantic?
And some of the eels moved to the right and went to Europe. Some of the other eels came to the
United States-- to Virginia and North Carolina, to the fresh waters there. What determined which
way the eel should go? What determined the European eel and the American eel, as it were?
Well, these scientists discovered that the eels that had 11 or fewer vertebrae always came to
Virginia and North Carolina. If they had 12 or more vertebrae, they always went to Europe. The
2
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
ticket-- the ticket-- was in the vertebrae. Now, this means that all of life is fundamentally
structured and grounded in order, that there is inherent in the creative process that which when
life realizes itself, its potential has been actualized.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Now, this gives to us-- it should give to us a very simple but profound confidence in the life
process itself. And in my language, it should give us the confidence in the Creator, confidence in
God, for it would seem to me that if all other manifestations of life, including my own body,
have this order built into it, why should not the experiences of my life, the growth of my life, all
of the things would have to do with my mind and spirit, why should not they then be in
accordance with what to me is the will and the purpose-- and for my mind-- the creative dream of
God?
[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]
This is tape number ET28, from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side 2, entitled, The Great Exposure.
[BELLS RINGING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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 Meditations of the Heart. Sometimes, there's only a 60 second divide between
youth and maturity, childhood and adulthood, strength and weakness, life and death. That life is
vulnerable is the key to its longevity.
We are surrounded every day by the exposure to sudden and devastating calamity. Despite all
efforts to the contrary, there is no device by which we may get immunity from the slings and
arrows of outrageous fortune. Here is a man in the full prime of active life, with all the strength
and vigor of a rounded maturity. Disease strikes. He withers and dies quickly, without warning
and often without premonition.
Here is a carefree, happy child, surrounded by all the love that wise devotion and careless rapture
can give. A plane crash. Both parents perish. And what at 10 o'clock was a child becomes at
10:01 a desolate creature shunted across the great divide that separates hope from hopelessness,
dependence from independence. Thus it goes in one vein.
3
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Transcription
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Or here is a person from whom all the lights had long since gone out. The way ahead is no way.
A sharp, sudden turn in the road or a chance encounter in the darkness and everything's changed.
Life is vulnerable. Always, there is the exposed flank.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Sometimes much energy is spent in a vain attempt to protect oneself. We try to harden our fiber,
to render ourselves safe from exposure. We refuse to love anyone, for instance, because we
cannot risk being hurt. We withdraw from participation and the struggles of our fellows because
we must not get caught in the communal agony of those around us.
We take no stand where fateful issues are at stake because we dare not run the risk of exposure to
attack. But all this, at long last, is of no avail. The attack from without is missed. And we escape
only to find that the life we have protected has slowly and quietly sickened deep within because
it was cut off from the nourishment of the great exposure.
It is the way of life that it be nourished and sustained by the constant threat, the sudden rending,
than welcome each rebuff that makes life's smoothness rough. It is a very commonplace
observation to say that as we live, our lives are caught up in a pattern of logic and order, reward
and punishment, reaping and sowing.
So fundamental is this kind of rhythmic balance in the very grain of our feeling tones and our
thought patterns that automatically we elect, as it were, to project this generalization in to an allinclusive way of life, so that when we do something, we expect it to balance itself in something
else.
I remember when I was a little boy, I broke my arm. It was in the summer. The doctor put my
arm in splints, as it were. And for three or four weeks, I was unable to participate in the things
that ordinarily engaged my time and attention.
And I wondered why, if I had to break my arm, it would not happen during the school year when
I could get mileage out of it. But it happened at the time when school was out and all the
wonderful things were going on in the summer. And then I began to go over in my mind-tutored, you see, by this balance about which I'm talking, reward and punishment, action and
reaction, antecedent and consequence-- and I wondered, what deed had I committed that was of
such enormous consequence that it had to be balanced by a broken arm at the peak of the
summer time?
This notion, you see, that we are in a rhythm of reward and punishment, and it operates
sometimes in our working philosophy. We say that if we are very good, then good things will
come to us as a result of it; that a good man, a worthy man, a man who has integrity and who
lives up to the most far reaching demands of his integrity, that man would not be subject to the
great exposure as a man who pays no attention to these things.
Now, this is one of the aspects of our experience, but it does not exhaust the possibilities. It is
true that there is reward and punishment, that the law of antecedent and consequence does
operate. But as it would seem to me, that over and above this kind of balance or this kind of
order, this kind of moral structure, there is what may be called a random movement in existence-
4
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
- a movement which does not seem to take into account the private predicament, the situation of
the individual as an individual, but it involves him because he happens to be present and
available at the critical moment.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The Master talks about this when someone ask him concerning a child that was born blind. His
disciples said, was this child born blind because of the sins of his parents? And the Master
countered with a very interesting comment. He said, the people on whom the tower at Siloam fell
and were killed, were they any more guilty than the people on whom the tower didn't fall?
And the inference is, no, they were not more guilty, but they were under the tower and the others
were not. This is an extraordinary something with which you are dealing. There is no protection
against the great exposure. We as living beings in this world, again and again, are exposed to the
operation of impersonal forces over which we are unable to exercise any control-- forces that are
not responsive to our wills, however good and insistent those wills are.
Given this situation, which is a part of the human predicament, it is within the resources of the
individual and it is one of the tremendous insight of religion that there is always available in God
strength, sufficient for our needs, whatever they may be. And this is not some Pollyanna remark,
but it is the studied wisdom and the garnered experience of generations of men that the test of
life is often found in the degree to which we are able to absorb the hammerings of the great
exposure without at the same time destroying our joy.
There is in God strength, sufficient for our needs, whatever they may be.
[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]
The preceding program was prerecorded.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
5
�
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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
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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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-781.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Creative Order in Life; The Great Exposure (ET-28; GC 11-23-71), 1971 Nov 23
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
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Identifier
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394-781
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Creative Order in Life (1963-09-27); The Great Exposure (1963-02-15)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1963-09-27
1963-02-15
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from Jane Steger's "Leaves from a Secret Journal." He attempts makes sense of the makeup of one's own life through the lens of ecology and biology. Using examples such as trees and DNA, Thurman explores the depths of the "order" of human existence.
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from his text "Meditations of the Heart." His reading reflects upon the impact of trauma, and how it effects the development of the individual. He develops his ideas based off of personal experience and his own psychological findings. In this recording, Thurman suggests that it is in the exposure to the reality of existence that one can begin to mature.
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Dustin Mailman
angels
balance
biology
chaos
childhood
coding
completion
confidence
consequence
constitution
creativity
death
development
ecology
epistemology
experience
Jane Steger
journey
leaves from a secret journal
life
maturity
meditations of the heart
moral structure
North Carolina
personality
pigs
Sargasso Sea
seasons
snakes
trauma
tree
urge of life
Virginia
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/2feeea58befe91d124a3c7e6ec31cbb6.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711708800&Signature=EH%2B24hftWH6GhAVXJDzbVxprEtA%3D
f2fc60f3ddf32b043751160c54757c72
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-774.mp3
This is tape number ET 17 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 1 entitled, The Intentional Life.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, o Lord, my
strength, and my redeemer.
I'm reading from The Inward Journey. For whatsoever plans I shall devise for my own peace, my
life cannot be without war and affliction. It is natural to have a plan for one's life. The mind is
always trying to make sense out of experience.
This is true even when that does not seem to be a pattern or plan on the basis of which an
individual lives his life. There are some people who by temperament are so orderly that no action
is contemplated by them in the absence of a well-defined plan. If such a person is making a
simple journey, careful attention is given to every detail of schedule and of events in which he is
likely to be involved. For him, each day is ordered between the hours of waking and of sleeping.
There are others for whom planning comes hard. They put off every detail until the last minute
and move through life in a kind of breathless confusion. They depend upon chance and the
particular circumstance to determine what must or must not be done. There is a sense in which
their lives are lived in a state of extended crisis.
But whether one falls into one of the other category or somewhere in between, there is a sense in
which one's life moves within the structure of pattern and plan. Particularly this is true of one's
life as a whole. There are things that one finds meaningful and things that one likes or dislikes.
There are goals that are kept before one-- vocation, personal, fulfillment, and family life, status,
position, prestige, or the like.
In such contemplation of goals, there is a normal tendency to exclude the things that would make
for conflict and turmoil and to include the things that will make for peace and tranquility.
Thomas a Kempis reminds us that it is the nature of life and man's experience in life that there be
what he calls war and affliction. This is not a note of pessimism and futility. It is rather a
recognition that conflict is a part of the life process.
Whatever may be the plan which one has for one's life, one must win the right to achieve it.
Again and again in the struggle a man may experience failure, but he must know for himself that
even though such is his experience the final word has not been spoken. Included in his plan must
be not only the possibility of failure, but also the fact that he will not escape struggle, and
conflict, and war. Mr. Valiant For Truth in Pilgrim's Progress says, "my sword I give to him that
shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks
and my scars I carry with me to be a witness for me that I have fought his battle who will be my
rewarder."
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It is a very commonplace remark to say that life has to be intentionally lived on the basis of plan
and order. Sometimes this seems to be untrue as far as our observation of a particular person is
concerned. But whether or not we are aware of the precise order on the basis of which we are
living, whether or not we are aware of the particular goal that provides a point of other than self
reference around which our life revolves, the fact remains that at the profoundest level of our
living there is always at work a very well-defined pattern trend drift which is made up of a series
of choices sometimes deliberately undertaken, sometimes quite unconsciously arrived at.
But nevertheless, a man's life is made up in its profoundest aspects of a cycling series of small
patterns which become a design, and these patterns very often are determinative of the kind of
future which one has. This means, then, that failure is a very important aspect of living. An
individual who finds that as he stands on the threshold of some moment of fulfillment or when
he feels that he is at last coming into his own and then suddenly everything goes wrong-- he
misses a turn in the road, or something of that sort.
When this happens, the individual becomes painfully aware that his failure may be due to some
moment of inattention on his part, something that breaks down within him, but with reference to
which he has a very sustained responsibility. Sometimes the failure may be due to the operation
of forces that are not under the control of the individual. There is, of course, a sense in which we
are victims of circumstances. There is a sense in which we are so involved in the operation of
impersonal forces that determine, often in detail, how we will perform, how we will behave,
what we will do. And we find that this takes place even as we watch it in a manner that is
powerless to alter.
Now in this sense, then, it seems to me that failure may result from the operation of forces over
which we are unable to exercise any control and the peculiar quality of our responsibilities shifts.
In the first instance, our failure was due to a breakdown of responsibility on our own part. We
were unable to take the full orb responsibility for the particular act because of some moment of
variation or some moment that caused us to be deflected from our goal and our purpose.
But this is another kind where I have done all that I can do and I know that I have done my very
best, and yet beyond my power to determine or control, things happen, events seem to move in
and push me around. Now when this happens, then I must be very careful to be aware of one
important insight. And that is that again and again there may be-- and mark my words, I say that
there may be-- a radical distinction between failure on the one hand and being mistaken in the
thing that I am undertaking, being mistaken in the thing that I am trying to do.
Now, this may seem like a subtle distinction, or it may seem like a splitting of hairs. But it is a
very authentic aspect of man's experience. Let me repeat it, that failure may be something which
I must hold in mind as being a part of my experience precipitated by incidents, persons, forces
that are not responsive to my mind, and responsive to my desires, and responsive to my will.
Now, when this happens I must not read into the quality of my intent I must not read into the
integrity of my own purpose this failure. I must keep a clear distinction between the integrity of
my intent, the clarity of the vision or the goal that is before me and the failure to achieve it or to
accomplish it.
2
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
The distinction, then, between failure on the one hand and being mistaken on the other is a very
important and crucial distinction. And then it is important to remember that ultimately, the
responsibility for living my life on the basis of some kind of intent, some kind of plan is my
responsibility. And it doesn't matter how much of life I have before me or how little. There is a
quantity of responsible integrity that always is mine.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
If I have only one day, it is my responsibility to put into that day as much of my intention, as
much of my purpose, as much of my planning as I am able to muster. If I don't, then it means
that I drift through the day and I must live the day anyway. And therefore, I should so live that at
the end of a day-- and any day may be my last day-- at the end of a day, I can say as I assess it,
this day I put into my actions, I put into the hours clear intent, clear purpose. Whether I was able
to fulfill the purpose or fulfill the intent or not.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my rock and my redeemer.
This is tape no ET 17 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side two entitled, Life is a River.
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my redeemer.
The contemporary poet Langston Hughes has written a poem which he calls Rivers. "I've known
rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has
grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut
near the Congo, and it lulled me to sleep. I saw the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to
New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known rivers-ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers."
It is a very convenient and, I think, rather universal way of contemplating the meaning of life, by
thinking of it in terms of a river, in terms of the meaning of a river. Of course, it is not an
absolute thing that analogies will be altogether accurate, but there is to be found an insight here.
If we think of life itself as being like a river, a river has a very simple beginning.
The Mississippi River, for instance, begins in some quiet, snowy cove in the northwestern part of
the United States. It moves down across the broad expanse of the continent, growing in depth,
and breadth, and in turbulence, gathering along its way many tributaries, a wide variety of
substances until at last it empties itself into the Gulf of Mexico and then to the sea-- the far off
call all waters hear. This is the way of the river.
Human life is the same way. Your life, my life began very simply, and then after a period there
was a great eruption and we were born. And then the process of simplicity started over again, but
not quite as elemental as before. And as we grew in years, our lives became more involved in the
experiences of living, the raw materials by which we were surrounded beat in upon us, and we
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
brooded over the stuff of these raw materials shaping always that which will become ourselves.
Until at last we, too, come to the end.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The depth, the breadth, the turbulence-- these are a part of the experience of man even as they are
part of the experience, and the development, and the unfolding of the river. The analogy is
complete in the second instance because a river has storms, has times of turbulence, times of
drought. There are times when it seems that the tranquil behavior of the river has been forgotten,
winds blow, squalls come. The river becomes one turbulent monster, reckless of all
consequences, blind to good and evil.
It moves on its relentless way. It is the storm of the river. And one watching this behavior of the
river would find it hard to remember that the river ordinarily moves along with calmness and
with a dispatch bearing on its bosom traffic of ship and boat, always working, as it would seem,
for the fulfillment, and the nourishment, and the sustenance of man.
But when the storm comes, all of that is temporarily forgotten. My life and your life are this way.
We are moving along day by day, quietly attending to our business, going through the
established routine or pattern of our days, loving our friends, reacting in various ways to those
who are not our friends, pursuing our limited goals or walking in the light of our far off visions.
This is the way of life.
And then sometimes without notice, without any warning, a vast shadow crosses the path. Health
becomes sickness suddenly. Death moves in and takes from the circle someone to whom one
long and happy adjustment has been made over many years. It is the time of storm and stress of
the river.
At such times, men wrestle with the depths of their agony and their suffering, and it is then that
they are liable to think and to feel that this, after all, is what life means. That there is no God,
there is no such thing as good, but life is a skinning-- a grinning skull and crossbones, having no
meaning, fulfilling no purpose, involving the individual in its impersonal maneuvering as if the
individual were just a puppet in the hands of some kind of monster.
This is the flood time of the river. And when that comes, one forgets about the more tranquil
times. One tends to forget about the meanings which one sensed about life and the waters were
quiet. When one had a long stretch of time in which to move gently into the process of living and
experiencing.
But it is of the essence of the flood time in the life of man to remember what he experienced
when there was no flood time. It is the sense of peace and tranquility which is a man's when he is
not in the flood time that may hold him to his course when the waters rise and overflow the
banks.
The analogy is complete in the third instance because a river has a goal, and the goal of the river
is the sea. It is a matter of extraordinary significance, and yet very commonplace that all the
waters in all the rivers in all the lands come out of the sea, and all the waters in all the rivers in
4
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
all the lands go to the sea. That out of which the river comes is that to which the river goes. The
source of the river and the goal of the river are the same.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
This is the way of man. It is the insight of religion that man's life comes out of God and that
man's life goes to God. God is the source and the goal of life. Thus Augustine says, "thou hast
made us for thyself and our souls are restless till they find their rest in thee."
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the river. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young, I built
my heart near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've
seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known rivers. Ancient, dusky rivers. My
soul has grown deep like the rivers.
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my rock and my redeemer.
5
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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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" />
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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/394-774.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
The Intentional Life; Life is a River (ET-17; GC 11-20-71), 1971 Nov 20
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
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394-774
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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The Intentional Life (1962-05-18); Life is a River (1961-03-24)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Date
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1962-05-18
1961-03-24
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman uses his text, "The Inward Journey," to discern what it means to live a life of intentionality. He holds up the orderly life and the life of crisis as the two ways one may live their life. He continues that regardless of one's life orientation, that one must wrestle with the reality of failure being embedded into the human experience. Thurman notes that life is a pattern that is continually unfolding, revealing a wider pattern, and that one's recognition of this pattern comes from an intentionally lived life.
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman uses Langston Hughes' poem, "Rivers," to speak to human experience. Thurman discusses the analogy of human life as a river flowing, flooding, and resting.
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
Abraham Lincoln
agony
Augustine
Congo
contemplation
death
design
essence
experience
flood
goal
goals
integrity
inward journey
journey
Langston Hughes
life
meaning of life
Mississippi River
New Orleans
order
pattern
pilgrim's progress
responsibility
Rivers
soul
storm
tension
Thomas a Kempis
turbulence
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/07afc8d8c5cbd06e3fababde9176d46e.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711708800&Signature=deh5Mu3Vv%2BI7A5m5WJ08wsAHQAg%3D
f0189dcf51165dbe7c76603a97552304
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-770.mp3
This is tape number ET10 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman-- this is side one entitled "The Country of the Heart."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
I'm continuing my reading from Jane Staeger's "Leaves from a Secret Journal." Last night, as I
was thinking intently about the spirit of God within each one of us-- and especially of that spirit
as within myself and in life-- a curious, quite definite feeling came over me as though I had
entered into another country, flowed out into something wider, past, as it were, to another plane.
There was nothing strange or unnatural about it, nor was there the slightest mental confusion.
I was perfectly aware of myself and of the surroundings of my room. But the point of
consciousness appeared to have slipped from my head to my heart-- from thought to emotion,
perhaps. This is the country of the heart, I found myself exclaiming. It was a further glimpse of
an experience I had had several months ago, which was half a dream, and half the thoughts
following immediately upon awakening.
In the dream part, I saw a sort of field or prairie dotted over with what appeared to be the
burrows of animals leading into the ground. But I seemed to know that in reality, these were not
animal runs, but were human personalities through which, if one walked, one would emerge into
another world. I waked them, but still strong upon me was the belief brought back from the
illuminating depths of sleep that every human being is a gateway into another world-- a world
which we enter by walking through ourselves.
That is-- by sinking deeper and deeper into ourselves, pressing open one door of consciousness
after another, I am convinced that there is a wonderful world-- a wider, richer life, a more intense
joy and beauty close at hand-- almost in touch of us-- which our blind eyes and blinder hearts
have not the grace to perceive. As we plod along our anxious road, we never lift up our eyes to it
or open our ears to its melody. And yet, sometimes, our hearts tell us in a vague wistfulness that
we have missed the way-- have somehow wandered from the path, and are very far from home.
When I sit on the porch of an evening in late summer, the air is filled with the rasping of the
Katydids. There they are in the locust trees almost in hand's reach of me and, yet, we are in two
different worlds. I have some small knowledge of their world, but what have they of my world?
They might, indeed, entirely deny my very existence, yet there we are out in the same summer
night side by side. Just as I am close to the Katydids, so I believe that there is another world and
other beings as close to me of whose existence I guess as little as those jolly green fiddlers in the
locust streets guess of mine.
This world, which I believe to be there just beyond the gray veils of our present consciousness, I
have called the country of the heart. Every now and again, we catch glimpses of it and know that
if we might enter into it, we should not find ourselves as here strangers and wanderers, but spirits
returned to our larger selves in the place where we belong unutterably and exquisitely at home.
The higher we get in the scale of development, the further we seem to get away from this. This is
because our own self-consciousness-- our trying, as it were-- to manage things for ourselves
confuses our consciousness of him.
1
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Transcription
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Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
There is another dimension to the insight with which Jane Staeger is wrestling here, she talks, of
course, about the thin veil that separates our world from another world-- the feeling that the
consciousness of the individual is the opening from a larger world of life and meaning is not a
new idea. It has been expressed in many ways. And the thing that is so amazing and exciting to
my kind of mind is the fact that this sort of notion is a part of the materials of much of what is
going on in the whole scientific development that is upon our world.
We have discovered, for instance, over and over again that there is a way by which it is possible
to communicate with animals, even though we do not speak their language as such-- they do not
speak our language. But it seems as if any form of conscious life is but a manifestation of life.
And the difference in expressions of life is the difference in the context of the manifestation.
Now, when I was a boy living in Florida, I had a rather extraordinary experience that illustrated
this at another level. One day, I went across the way to visit my chum. And, as I started around
the house, his father rapped on the window pane and urged me to come around and come through
the front door. And when I came into the front door and into a room where the father was
standing, he pointed through the open window to the backyard. And there in the backyard, my
chum's little baby sister, about three or four months old, was sitting in the sand playing with a
rattlesnake.
She would pull the snake back as he would try to crawl away. She would turn him over on his
back, and they were having a delightful time. The father sent me out to stand on the other side of
the house and my chum was standing on the left hand side so that we would not let any adult
come around to introduce in to this elemental experience of the ground of vitality, a principle of
disturbance, fear, anxiety. So that when this principle is introduced, each form of life jumps, as it
were, back into the tight context of its manifestation and looks out through that context at the
other. And this creates fear and enmity.
Now this is one of the extraordinary things about life that my life and your life represents a
separate and distinct consciousness. My thoughts, the history of my life-- all of the manifold
context by which my life gets its meaning and its significance and the manifold context by which
your life gets its meaning and significance-- these are but the facades of life.
But, whenever you have an intimate, primary experience with another human being and you get
past the point when you are trying to relate to each other by the symbolism of words or by tokens
of testing, there does come a moment in the relationship when it seems as if you and the other
person relate to each other by going down and coming up on the inside of the other person rather
than trying to relate across this way.
Now, this notion is that all of life is one, and that wherever I am able to penetrate behind the
particular facade-- wherever I am able to go behind the context of differentiation, I come upon
the same ebb and flow of creativity, the ground of being, the ground of vitality in which all of the
individual expressions have their meaning and their significance. And, in the language of
religion, it is this ground that God provides, and those who are expressive of it are expressions of
him.
2
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.
This is tape number ET10 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust this is side
two entitled, "Death-- a Part of Life."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Strength and my Redeemer.
I'm beginning today another facet of our discussion of working philosophies of life. And we'll do
the broadcast, which was interrupted last week. 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 shown, a storm or a cloudburst 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, even 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 are 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's beyond our
powers. It makes me very sad, said in the first leaf. They were silent a while and then the first
leaf said quietly to herself-- why must we fall?
The second leaf asked, what happens to us when we have fallen? We sink down, down. What is
under us? The first leaf answered, I don't know. Some say one thing, some another, but nobody
knows. The second leaf asks, do we feel anything? Do we know anything about ourselves when
we are down there? The first leaf answered, who knows? Not one of all those down there has
ever come back to tell us about it. They were silent again.
Then the first leaf said tenderly to the other-- don't worry so much about it. You're trembling.
Oh, that's nothing, the second leaf answered. I tremble at the least thing now. I don't feel so sure
of my hold as I used to. Let's not talk anymore about such things, said the first leaf. The other
replied-- no, we'll let it be, but what else shall we talk about? She was silent but went on after a
little while-- which of us will go first?
There's still plenty of time to worry about that, the other leaf assured her. Let's remember how
beautiful it was, how wonderful when the sun came out and shown so warmly that we thought
we'd burst with life. Do you remember? And the morning dew and the mild and splendid nights-now the nights are dreadful, the second leaf complained, and there is no end to them. We
shouldn't complain, said the first leaf gently, we've outlived many, many others.
3
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Have I changed much? Asked the second leaf, shyly but determinedly. Not in the least, the first
leaf assured her. You only think so because I've gotten to be so yellow and ugly, but it's different
in your case. You're fooling me, the second leaf said. No, really, the first leaf exclaimed eagerly.
Believe me, you're as lovely as the day you were born. Here and there maybe a little yellow spot,
but it's hardly noticeable and only makes you handsomer-- believe me.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Thanks, whispered the second leaf, quite touched. I don't believe you, not altogether, but I thank
you because you're so kind. You've always been so kind to me. I'm just beginning to understand
how kind you are. Hush, said the other leaf, and kept silent herself, for she was too troubled to
talk anymore. Then they were both silent-- hours passed.
A moist wind blew cold and hostile through the treetops. Ah, now, said the second leaf. Then her
voice broke off. She was torn from her place and spun down. Winter had come. And then one
other thing to go along with this-- this is called "A Song of Living."
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die. I have sent up my gladness on wings to
be lost in the blue of the sky. I have run and leaped with the rain. I have taken the wind to my
breast-- my cheek, like a drowsy child, to the face of the earth I have pressed. Because I have
loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die. I have kissed young love on the lips, I've heard her song
to the end, I have struck my hand like a seal in the loyal hand of a friend. I have known the piece
of heaven, the comfort of work done well. I have longed for death in the darkness and risen alive
out of hell. Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
I give a share of my soul to the world where my course is run. I know that another shall finish the
tasks I must leave undone. I know that no flower, no flint was in vain on the path I trod. As one
looks on a face through a window through life, I have looked on god. Because I have loved life, I
shall have no sorrow to die.
Death is a common part of the experience of all living things. It represents a radical form of
failure-- the failure of the organism. All life moves in a cycle from birth to its end, and the cycle
is a very logical one-- birth, babyhood, childhood, youth, manhood, maturity, old age. But death
is not a part of this cycle.
Death, in some sense, is outside of the cycle, for it may invade the cycle at any particular point-babyhood, childhood, youth, manhood, old age-- death is outside the cycle. Soon or late, than,
every human being must come to grips with the fact of death as a part of his experience of life.
Now, this does not mean that the contemplation of death should bring morbidity. It does not
mean that it is something of necessity that needs to be dreaded. But it is something which has to
be faced.
Therefore, all religions of any kind, however significant they may be, know that they must at
some point, if they are to meet the deepest needs of the human spirit, they must give to the
human spirit some insight, some feeling tone, some preparation for dealing with this fundamental
and basic aspect of life. There are two or three very simple suggestions that I would make about
the meaning of death.
4
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
In the first place, death is something that belongs in the human experience-- and all experience,
whatever the nature of the experience may be, each person is aware that he deals with his
experiences at two levels-- as a participant, as a person who's doing what he is doing, and also as
a person who is observing himself as he does what he is doing. So that this two-fold dimension is
the way in which all human beings relate to the experiences of their lives-- as an observer of
themselves participating in the things that they are doing.
Now, it seems to me all aspects of life, every phase of life in this sense is episodic. It is
something that the individual is experiencing, but no phase of life is capable of containing all
that the individual is. There is a margin left in which the individual as the observer is never
completely involved in the thing that he is doing. Now, death is one of the events in life, and it
belongs in the category of events and the scale of events. And, therefore, even with reference to
death, the individual is a participant in his own death, but there is a sense in which he stands
outside of it.
For the human spirit has the ability to detach itself from the body. Now, this means, then, that
death is something that takes place in life. There is a sense, you see, in which life and death are
twins, are aspects of something larger that we call life. But, unfortunately, we must use the same
word. So that there is a sense in which life and death are one. There is a sense in which life
contains both life and death.
Therefore, death is a thing which happens not to life, but which happens in life. It is an
experience in life, but there is a sense in which a man knows that something within him is never
quite penetrated, never quite touched, never quite involved in the experience which he is going
through. Therefore, all religions insist, then, that which is most fundamentally representative of
the human spirit is that which transcends both time and space, transcends all events. And it is this
dimension that is eternal, and it is this fulfillment through which human life goes that causes
them to feel that they are experiencing eternal life.
Because I have loved life in this sense, then, I shall have no sorrow to die.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my Rock and Divine Redeemer.
5
�
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/394-770.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
The Country of the Heart; Death - A Part of Life (ET-10; GC 11-19-71), 1971 Nov 19
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
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394-770
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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The Country of the Heart (1963-09-20); Death - A Part of Life (1961-05-12)
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
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1963-09-20
1961-05-12
Description
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In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reads from Jane Steger's "Leaves from a Secret Journal." He attempts makes sense of the makeup of one's own life through the lens of ecology and biology. Using examples such as trees and DNA, Thurman explores the depths of the "order" of human existence.
n this recording within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman draws upon a parable of two leaves at the end of the Fall season. The two leaves are in conversation with one another, pondering questions of why they must die and who will take their place when they die. After reading this parable, Thurman reflects upon the ways in which all of creation's lived experience participates in death; rendering death as an event that happens in one's life, not something that happens to oneself.
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Dustin Mailman
A Song of Living
angels
biology
chaos
coding
common experience
completion
confidence
constitution
creativity
ecology
epistemology
experience
Jane Steger
journey
leaves
leaves from a secret journal
life
North Carolina
Oak Tree
parable
peace
personality
pigs
Sargasso Sea
seasons
snakes
transcendence
tree
urge of life
Virginia
working paper
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b23515ab06b72160012b5d49a266759b
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Pitts Theology Library
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Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-767.mp3
This is tape number ET5 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, Two
Meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side one, entitled, "The Child and Religious Meaning."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[CHURCH BELLS CHIMING]
[INAUDIBLE].
[MUSIC PLAYING]
"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]
For many years, I have used the thing that I am about to read now as the important element in the
dedication services that are held in connection with the dedication of children, particularly
babies. And I want to read it and make one or two simple comments about it.
"Thus a child learns, by wiggling skills through his fingers and toes and to himself, by soaking
up habits and attitudes of those around him, by pushing and pulling his own world. Thus a child
learns, more through trial than error, more through pleasure than pain, more through experience
than suggestion, more through suggestion than direction. Thus a child learns, through affection,
through love, through patience, through understanding, through belonging, through doing,
through being.
Day by day your child comes to know a little bit of what you know, to think a little bit of what
you think, to understand your understanding, that which you dream and believe and are in truth
becomes your child. As you perceive clearly or dully, as you think fuzzily or sharply, as you
believe foolishly or wisely, as you dream drably or goldenly, as you are unworthy or sincere,
thus your child learns."
And then, "I am the child. All the world waits for my coming. All the earth watches with interest
to see what I shall become. Civilization hangs in the balance. For what I am, the world of
tomorrow will be. I am the child. I have come into your world, about which I know nothing.
Why I came, I know not. How I came, I know not.
I'm curious. I'm interested. I am the child. You hold in your hand my destiny. You determine
largely whether I shall succeed or fail. Give me, I pray you, those things that make for happiness.
Train me, I beg you, that I may be a blessing to the world."
"The truth of God shall be upon thy heart, and thou shalt teach them to thy children, and shall
talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest in the way, and when thou
liest down, and when thou risest up. Train your child in the way he should go. And even when he
is old, he will not depart from it."
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
In presenting your child for dedication to God, you acknowledge your responsibility to your
generation and to future generations to see to it that his life will have a free chance to be a
blessing, and not a bane. You will develop and keep alive in him a sturdy confidence in the truth,
positive faith in life, and an abiding trust in God. You will not lie to your child, nor deceive your
child, so that under all circumstances, your child may depend upon the integrity of his mother
and his father.
And then there follows these words, I dedicate you to God, and to the fulfillment of your life in
the religious faith and tradition of your mother and your father. May it be said of you, as it was
said of the baby Jesus long ago, that you increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with
God and man, so that all who come to know you in the days ahead will find in you a benediction
breathing peace.
Now it is very important, I think, that children should grow up in the religious faith and tradition
of their parents, in order that the roots in which the family's life is sustained and by which it is
nurtured can be available as resources for the child. This is not to say that when the child
matures, when the child rounds out his development, and goes on his way with all of life opening
out before him in many of its splendors and many of its disillusionments, that he will not want to
make the authentic decision for himself. He will not want to say yes to this or no to that. I think
this is important.
But the most crucial thing, it seems to me, is for the child to have a sense of being rooted, being
grounded in some kind of holding tradition, so that when he is ready to deal creatively and
effectively with what, to him, will be increasingly the meaning of life, when he is ready to
project the lines along which he expects to live his life, he will have a sense first of being at
home somewhere, being grounded in something. So that when he moves, he moves from
something that has contained him, has steadied him, has given to his organism, as it were, the
same kind of rhythmic beat that sustained his mother and his father through the generations.
For I believe, you see, that a man cannot be at home anywhere, anywhere, unless he is at home
somewhere, standing from within the context of belonging. He can project himself into the
unexplored, into the unknown. And feel his way always having a kind of monitor, which will not
be a judge, but will provide perspective in the light of which he can define the movements of his
life.
Very simply put, if you were moving your furniture from one home to another, and if the movers
brought all the furniture that is to go into the living room, and put it in the middle of the floor,
and then you came in to arrange it, it would mean that you would have to set the furniture up in
some kind of order. And then decide what is the order that will be satisfactory to you. You look
at this chair, said, oh no, that chair doesn't belong there, but belongs over here. Or the divan
doesn't belong there, but it belongs at this place. In other words, if you have an order to start
with, then standing within that order, you are able to determine what, for you, is the authentic
order.
But if you have no order out of which you are trying to make order, then you must make some
order out of the chaos. And then from that order that you make out of the chaos, fashion an order
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that is more in keeping with your heart's desire. And again and again, we find that there isn't
perhaps enough concern, enough energy, enough vitality, in order to make all of these steps.
Therefore it seems to me that the birthright that every child is entitled to have is a context of
religious meaning that will define for him what it is that he is seeking and where he may find it.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[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]
This program was prerecorded.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is tape number ET5, from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side two, entitled, "Our Children Are Not Things."
[MUSIC PLAYING]
"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 Meditations of the Heart. It is in order to think about children and our
relationship to them. Often we underestimate both our influence and our responsibility with
reference to children because they do not seem to be mindful of our presence, except in terms of
something to resist. The world of the adult is in some ways a different world from that of a child.
We bring to bear upon life the cumulative judgment garnered from our years of living of trial and
error, of many, many discoveries along the way.
It is from that kind of context that we judge the behavior of children. But they have not lived.
And there is much that can be known and understood only from the harvest of the years. This
fact should not blind us to the profound way in which we determine, even in detail, the attitudes
and the very structure of the child's thought. If we are good to the child, and to other people, he
will get from us directly a conception of goodness more profound and significant than all the
words we may use about goodness as an ideal.
If we lose our temper and give way to hard, brittle words which we fling around and about, the
child learns more profoundly and significantly than all the formal teaching about self-control
which may be offered him. If we love a child, and the child senses from our relationship with
others that we love them, he will get a concept of love that all the subsequent hatred in the world
will never be quite able to destroy. It is idle to teach the child formerly about respect for other
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people or other groups, if in little ways we demonstrate that we have no authentic respect for
other people and other groups.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The feeling, tone, and insight of the child are apt to be unerring. It is not important whether the
child is able to comprehend the words we use, or understand the ideas that we make articulate.
The child draws his meaning from the meaning which we put into things that we do and say. Let
us not be deceived. We may incorporate in our formal planning all kinds of ideas for the benefit
of the children. We may provide them with tools of various kinds. But if there is not genuineness
in our climate, if in little ways we regard them as nuisances, as irritations, as things in the way of
our pursuits, they will know that we do not love them, and that our religion has no contagion for
them.
Let us gather around our children and give to them the security that can come only from
associating with adults who mean what they say and who share in deeds, which are broadcast in
words. It is in order to make the first casual comment about how we relate to children to say that
so often the most fundamental relatedness to the child is an unconscious one. We are functioning
all the time as adults, creating a climate in which our children live, from which they get
important clues as to what things mean.
A child can gather so much more from the tone of our voice, or from what we do with our eyes,
when we are saying our thing, than from all the formal words that we may utter directly to the
child, which words, as they move from our lips, have as their purpose the shaping of an image
and the mind of the child. No, the image again and again is shaped almost unconsciously. The
child absorbs it from the environment.
We may say all of the words that we can conjure up about how wonderful it is to have respect for
other people and to love people, or even to love someone who is close at hand. But if the child
sees the deed, if the child is present when the sharp word is given, if the child is there when the
conversation goes on behind the other person's back, all of this goes into the shaping of the
inward parts of the mind and the spirit of the child. I learned so much more about prayer, for
instance, from my mother than any of the words that she ever used in teaching me little prayers,
or in teaching me to pray by something that I saw one night when I rushed into her room, and
was so excited that I forgot my manners and did not knock at the door beforehand. I simply burst
into the room.
And there she was kneeling beside her bed in prayer. And the moonlight came through the
window across her face. And what I saw in her face said to me about the inner meaning of the
prayer experience what all the teaching in the world could never have said. Now over and above
these unconscious teachings, and these unconscious influences, something must be said about the
direct and the conscious thing that is done. For instance, it is of absolute and-- how shall I [? say
it?-- ?] crucial importance that we do not ever lie to our children.
So that the child knows that even though his words may be weak, his words may be full of
mixtures of fantasy and fancy and imaginings, all of the things that come out of the magic of the
child's mind, but if he knows that when his mother speaks, or when his father utters the word,
that this is dependable, that this is the truth, so that the child has something against which he can
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Transcription
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put all of the pressure of his life, of his days, of his energies, and not feel that this thing gives,
that here is something that is dependable.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The night may come, and the night may be long, and the night may be dark. And the next day, it
may be raining. Or the child may have a sore toe, or a sore foot. Or he may be disappointed
because of this thing or the other thing. But always back in the shadows of his mind is the deep,
rock-like confidence that my father is true. My mother is true. And what my mother says or what
my father says can be depended upon. And this provides an emotional security that in my
judgment, at any rate, is as profound and as stabilizing as the emotional security about which we
hear so much that comes from tender loving care, and from being regarded kindly and tenderly
and graciously by the parents.
The child wants to know consciously and unconsciously that there is something upon which he
can depend that has solidity, that against which he can put all of his tantrums, and all of his
pressures, and all of his little anxieties. And this thing holds. And this he gets directly from his
mother and his father, so that their words are yes and no. And when they speak, the child knows
that he is standing in the presence of that which is dependable. And it is this that gives him his
clue as to what God means in the world.
[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.
The preceding was prerecorded.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
5
�
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Title
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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
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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/394-767.html" ></iframe>
Internal Notes
Notes for project team
Edited - GL 7/26
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
The Children and Religious Meaning; Our Children Are Not Things (ET-5; GC 11-16-71), 1971 Nov 16
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
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Identifier
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394-767
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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The Child and Religious Meaning (1964-01-24); Our Children Are Not Our Things (1963-11-01)
Source
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<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
1964-01-24
1963-11-01
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman utilizes Frederick J. Moffitt's "Thus A Child Learns," as a point of departure for his liturgy for the devotion of a child. Thurman notes that it is the "birthright" of every child to be given the tools "define for them what it is that they are seeking and where they may find it."
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Howard Thurman reflects from his text, "Meditations of the Heart," to "think about children and our relationship to them." Throughout this meditation, Thurman explores the ways in which adults should listen to, teach, and learn from children.
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
behavior
belonging
children
community
creativity
curiosity
dedication
dependability
development
developmental psychology
divan
experience
faith
family
Frederick J. Moffitt
furniture
genuine
goodness
habits
home
imagination
influence
intention
learning
life
love
meditations of the heart
moonlight
prayer
relationship
responsibility
self-control
teaching
Thus a Child Learns
tone
tradition
vitality
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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-766.mp3
This is tape number ET4 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, Two
Meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 1, entitled Salute to the New Year.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[BELLS TOLLING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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 beginning this first meditation for the new year by reading from Meditations of the Heart.
"There is always something impressive about a new start. Think how fortunate it would be if
time was not somehow divided into parts. Suppose there were no day, only night. Even in parts
of the world and near the North Pole, there is a six month day and a six month night.
Or suppose there were only winter or only summer or only spring. Suppose there were no
artificial things, like months, so that we could not be mindful of the passing of time. Suppose
there were no years, just the passing of hours with no signposts to mark them into units of
months and years. Then there would be no new year.
The beginning of another year means the end of a year that has fulfilled itself and passed on. It
means that some things are finished, rounded out, completed forever. It means that, for some of
us, sudden changes have taken place that are so profound in their nature that we can never be
what we were before.
There is something so final, so absolute, about a year that is gone. Something of it remains in us
that we take into the year that is next in line. But the new year means a fresh start, a second wind,
another chance, a kind of reprieve, a divine act of grace bestowed upon the children of men.
It is important to remember that whatever the fact may have been, it cannot be undone. It
remains a fact. If we have made serious blunders, they're made. All our tears cannot unmake
them. We may learn from them and carry our hard won lessons into the new year.
We can remember them not with pain, but with gratitude that, in our new wisdom, we can live
into the present year with deeper understanding and greater humanity. May whatever suffering
we brought on ourselves or other people teach us to understand life more completely and, in our
understanding of life, to love life more wisely, thus fulfilling God's faith in us by permitting us to
begin this new year."
It is always a fateful thing to stand at the beginning or even to have a sense of beginnings. It
means that there stretches out before us areas of living and thinking and experiencing that have
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not been explored by us and with reference to which always there are the possibilities undreamed
of.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
The sense of the future is very important in the living of life in the present, for it means that we
have been chosen, as it were, to have another chance, to improve our lives, to make fresh
mistakes, to make new friends, to gain wider and deeper experiences.
This sense of the future is very important in terms of man's total adventure-- one of the reasons
why, for instance, we shrink from death, one of the reasons why all of the religions of the world
know that they cannot address themselves, finally, to the deepest needs of the human spirit until,
somewhere in their theology or their dogma or their aspiration or their teaching, a recognition is
made of what physically death in and of itself implies.
For the thing that is dreadful, to use that word, about man's encounter with death is that it seems
to man that the future is cut off. And if there is no future, then the present and the past begin to
lose their meaning so that all of the religions of the world have something important and crucial
to say about the future. For, if it, they can address themselves to the place of the future in man's
total experience. Then they can deal totally with man.
Now there's something else that's very important. The sense of tomorrow is a part of the sense of
the future. Suppose you did not have tomorrow. Then, had you thought about what this would
mean to how you would interpret your past and how you would interpret your present?
For always and when, for instance, when you were young, very young-- say nine, 10 years old-you knew that whatever may be happening to you at that moment or whatever your past has
meant to you, the real possibility of your life remained to be explored.
So when you were nine years old, you said, the thing that I'm looking for really I can't get until
I'm in my teens. And then when you got into your teens, you said, no, I haven't had enough time
yet so that I can't experience it until I'm in my 20's. And then, when you were in your 20's, you
said, well, now, there's some things that can only come with a certain kind of maturity. So it'll
have to come in my 30's-- and on and on and on.
I said, when I get there, the struggle will be over. But when I got there, I found that the struggle
was not over, that the struggle will not be over, no, not even in death. This is the place of
tomorrow. It means that I can bring to bear upon the next day all that I have learned and gathered
or accumulated from all of the other days of the past.
So the poet says, I go to prove my soul. I see my way as birds, their trackless way. I shall arrive.
What time? What circuit first? I ask not. But unless God sent his hail, his sleet, or fireballs, I
shall arrive. He guides me and the bird in His good time.
Now this sense of tomorrow has something else to say about your life and about my life. It says
that it may be possible for me to select those aspects of my past which seem, to me, to be
excellent, to be worthful, but which I did not realize as being excellent or wistful when I was
going through them.
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I can't select these now, in the present, and prepare myself to build upon them in the future so
that the meaning of my life then becomes identified not merely with what I have experienced,
not merely with what I am now experiencing. But the meaning of my life can be identified with
that which is yet to come.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It means that I have one more chance to do tomorrow in a manner that is more significant and
more expressive of my true intent, things that would improve upon all that I have known in the
past.
So as we move into the new year, let us move into it face forward, greeting the future with hope
and aspiration. Let us not back into the future, looking at the past, saying to ourselves that,
whatever the future may be, it cannot, in any sense, be as good as the past.
No. The golden age is not in the past, was not yesterday. The golden age is tomorrow. Let us
salute, then, the new year.
[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]
This is tape number ET4 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust, Two
Meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 2, entitled The Strength to Be Free.
[BELLS TOLLING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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]
During this month, many people in different parts of our country will be thinking about freedom
and its meaning because of the national holiday that falls within the month. As a background for
our thought about a certain aspect of freedom, I'm reading two paragraphs.
"Give me the strength to be free. The thought of being free comes upon us sometimes with such
power that, under its impact, we lose the meaning that the thought implies. Often, being free
means to be where we are not at the moment, to be relieved of a particular set of chores or
responsibilities that are bearing heavily upon our minds, to be surrounded by a careless rapture
with no reminders of costs of any kind, to be on the open road with nothing overhead but the
blue sky and the whole day in which to roam.
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For many, being free means movement, change, reordering. To be free may not mean any of
these things. It may not involve a single change in a single circumstance. Or it may not extend
beyond one's own gate, beyond the four walls in the midst of which all of one's working hours
and endless nights are spent.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
It may mean no [INAUDIBLE] from the old familiar routine and the perennial cares which have
become one's persistent lot. Quite possibly, your days mean the deepening of your rut, the
increasing of your monotony, and the enlargement of the areas of your dullness. All of this and
more may be true for you. Give me the strength to be free.
Often, to be free means the ability to deal with the realities of one's situation so as not to be
overcome by them. It is a manifestation of a quality of being and living that results not only from
understanding of one's own situation, but also from wisdom in dealing with it. It takes no
strength to give up, to accept shackles of circumstance so that they become shackles of soul, to
shrug of the shoulders in blind acquiescence. This is easy.
But do not congratulate yourself that you've solved anything. In simple language, you have sold
out, surrendered, given up. It takes strength to find the high prerogative of your spirit. And you
will find that, if you do, a host of invisible angels will wing to your defense. And the glory of the
living God will envelop your surroundings because, in you, He has come into His own."
Give me the strength to be free and to endure the burden of freedom and the loneliness of those
without change. There is the freedom of the innocent, those who have not yet entered into any
measure of responsibility, whose lives are free from cocking care, from any of the burdens that
are generated by the necessities of growth and maturity.
It is the freedom of the little child whose childhood has been guaranteed by adults. For if a little
child is not permitted to experience childhood-- not merely to be a child chronologically, but to
experience childhood-- then he is forced to deal with his environment as if he were an adult.
And if a child is forced to deal with his environment as if he were an adult, then certain very
important biological and psychological processes that should be going on within the organism of
the child are interrupted. And the nervous system of the child becomes warped and twisted and
sometimes even gnarled so that the child grows up now with this lack of the experience of
childhood and becomes antisocial.
He has what may be called an angry nervous system, where there is not guaranteed for the child
the be carefree freedom, if I may put it that way, of innocence. The society pays a terrible toll for
as long as this child lives.
There is another kind of freedom. It is the freedom that is the result of responsibility-- the
freedom to be responsible, first, for your own action. And this means growth in maturity, growth
in wisdom.
When I was a boy, I had two sisters. One was older and one was younger. And I found it a very
convenient arrangement. Because whenever I was reprimanded for doing something, I could
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always say that I did it to help my younger sister out. Or I did it because of the influence of my
older sister, always dodging the kind of necessity that belongs to the responsible individual,
namely to take responsibility for one's own action.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Now there is another kind of responsibility with reference to action. And that is a responsibility
for one's reaction. It is true that I cannot determine the influences or the forces that will be
brought to bear upon my life.
There are events which catch me in their agonizing grapple with which I am unable to exercise
any kind of control. These events are not responsive to my will, however good and kind and
generous and holy or persistent my will may be.
Now, given my set of involvements, given the impersonal forces that are brought to bear upon
my life because of the very nature of my existence at the time and place that finds me, as a result
of all of these things, I cannot have any determinative influence.
But one responsibility that I do have and that is I am responsible for my reaction to the things
that happen to me. This is in my hands. And I can react with acquiescence. I can react as if I am
a poor, undernourished victim of circumstances. Or I may deal with the raw materials of my
experience with the creative integrity of a responsible mind and personality.
Now there is another kind of freedom still. And that is the freedom of option. Freedom
fundamentally, in its most crucial definition, means the sense of alternative, the sense of option.
Now I may not be able to act on the option. But if I maintain a sense of option, I am still free.
Now this is important. For where there is no sense of option, where the individual is stripped of
all choice, when all opportunities for alternatives are eliminated, then the individual is not free.
Therefore, any society that is dedicated to freedom as our society theoretically is dedicated to
freedom must, above all else, guarantee for the individual a persistent and consistent sense of
alternative so that he is under no necessity to conform without any option being available to him.
He must have a sense of option if he would be free. Give me the strength to be free and to endure
the burden of freedom and the loneliness of those without change.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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]
5
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We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)
Description
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<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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-766.html" ></iframe>
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Salute to the New Year; The Strength to be Free (ET-4; GC 11-16-71), 1971 Nov 16
Time Period
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1960s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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394-766
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Thurman, Howard
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Salute to the New Year (1962-01-05); The Strength to be Free (1960-07-01)
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
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1962-01-05
1960-07-01
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Thurman draws from his work "Meditations of the Heart" to reflect upon the meaning of a new year. He suggests that each passing year is a "year that has fulfilled itself and passed on," and is filled with change, fresh starts, grace, and hard lessons. In the passing of the previous year, Thurman suggests, there is an "opportunity to love life more wisely," noting that both the past and the future are "Golden Ages."
In this recording within the We Believe Series; Thurman draws from his work "Meditations of the Heart," to reflect upon the content of freedom, as the July 4th holiday approaches him and the original audience. He waxes over the variety of expressions of freedom: freedom as release from a current moment, freedom as a wide-open road, freedom as responsibility which leads to growth in wisdom. While discerning these forms of freedom, Thurman returns to a mantra, "Give me the strength to be free and to endure the burden of freedom and loneliness of those without change."
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
angels
beginnings
birds
change
child
completion
conformity
death
Fourth of July
freedom
friendship
future
God
gratitude
holiday
innocent
life
maturity
movement
new start
New Years Day
organism
re-ordering
responsibility
seasons
soul
strength
time
tomorrow
understanding
unity
wisdom
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3efbaac1f40ab8b94203a1e7501a7791
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thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-654_A.mp3
[ORGAN MUSIC PLAYING]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[CHORAL SINGING]
It is no ordinary experience to withdraw from the traffic and involvements of our common life,
to sit together in the quietness of the sanctuary, each one of us with his own world of thoughts
and desires, the hopes, and dreams, and fears. It is good to confess in the quietness whatever
there is within us that cries out for confession and to feel in the act of confession that he who
hears and judges also understands and loves.
It is no ordinary thing to be free enough within to confess even to God that which cries out for
confession. It is wonderful beyond measure to be able to share the stirrings of thanksgiving
which we feel and to do this, each one in his own way, with the kind of confidence that makes it
unnecessary to custom make the language that we use, but to be able to say thanks to God with
no necessity for trying to impress Him with our thoughtfulness or to store up some form of merit
that will plead our case at other times when gratitude is lacking and Thanksgiving is far
removed.
It is it is no ordinary thing simply to say to Thee, oh, God, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank
you so very much, our Father.
[ORGAN MUSIC PLAYING]
Three times I've seen an ox driving to pull a heavily-loaded wagon up a hill, the blood and form
streaming from its mouth and nostrils as it struggles. And I've seen it fall dead under the lash.
In the bush and the cliff below, I've seen bushbucks and little long-tail monkeys that I love so
shot dead-- not from any necessity, but for the pleasure of killing. And the [INAUDIBLE], and
the honeysuckles, and the wood doves that made the bush so beautiful to me.
And sometimes, I've seen bands of convicts going past to work on the road and have heard the
chains clanking which went around their waists and passed between their legs to the irons on
their feet. I had seen the terrible look in their eyes of a wild creature when every man's hand is
against it, and no one loves it, and it only hates and fears.
I've gotten up early in the morning to drop small bits of tobacco at the roadside, hoping that they
would find them and pick them up. I had wanted to say to them, someone loves you, but the man
with the gun was always there. I had wanted to say this, but I did not dare.
Once I'd seen a pack of dogs set on by men to attack a strange dog that had come among them
and had done no harm to anyone. I'd watched it torn to pieces though I had done all I could to
save it.
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Why did everyone press on everyone and try to make him do what he wanted? Why did the
strong crush the weak? Why do we hate, and kill, and torture? Why was life as it is? Why was I
ever born?
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
I had a strange experience today that results in my plan. I had worked with a great deal of care
and discipline to isolate what it was that was in my heart and spirit to say about William Blake
and was about ready.
I listened to the 8:00 news for these things. I don't usually do it on Sunday morning, but I did this
morning. And I heard first about the epidemic of smallpox in Pakistan, and then the mass for the
burial of 3,000 or more people who were killed in the avalanche, and then that group of Muslim
men and a little child that was sitting on the sidewalk drinking coffee and all mowed down by
machine guns from a passing automobile, and suddenly, all that I had been thinking about Blake
seemed to disintegrate. And my mind began thinking about life and the reverence for life and
Albert Schweitzer, for some strange reason.
So what I want to do in the time that I have is talk about that. I've had for a long time a very great
admiration-- admiration is the wrong word, but a great feeling of quiet joy in the fact of the
existence of a man on our planet like Albert Schweitzer, and yet, I have had my problems in
thinking about him.
But this morning, as my mind began touching him, I could see him walking across the square in
his little town and being thunderstruck and convicted by the statue in the park of this European
and the African, half naked, standing, looking up in the European's face with a certain sense of
pleading and anguish, and how by the strange movement of the spirit of God in his life, he gave
up one aspect of fulfillment for himself and moved out into the heart of Africa with the amazing
and stupendous undertaking to try as one European to atone for all of the violence of all the
Europeans on the African continent-- and how I first heard about him.
My mind went back to that. I was sitting in my college dormitory, and I was reading On the Edge
of the Primeval Forest, and I read this. And then how incensed I was that over and over again he
regarded these Africans as children. And the phrase occurred here and there, and I didn't know
what to do with this, because I was living in an environment in which even though a man was 75
years old, he was regarded as a child, and I recoiled against it.
And then I began to see how it belonged to a pattern of thinking. I remembered the British
bishop, Bishop Colenso, who was translating the Old Testament particularly out of the
Pentateuch into the Zulu language. And he had a rather intelligent Zulu working with him on the
translation, and they came to the account of Noah and the ark, and all the animals.
And this Zulu man said to Bishop Colenso, do you mean to tell me that there were animals from
cool climates and hot climates, animals that lived in the water, animals that lived on land, all
coming into this ark at the same time? How do they get along?
And then Bishop Colenso, who had been wrestling with a new theory of the origin and the
composition of the Pentateuch, but had kept it under a bushel, because he did not want to incur
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the wrath of the Anglican church, but he bowed his hand, and he said in reply to the Zulu's
request, should the man of God tell a lie to a child?
Pitts Theology Library
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And I began to feel that this notion of the children was a cultural thing that I must not take
personally, and yet, as I watched through the years, this has been a blind spot. I think this is,
perhaps, the reason why all the years of the work of this tremendous man for whom I have the
kind of reverence that I have for a few human beings in the world, in a sense-- why at the
twilight of his life there is no great group of Africans who have come up under his tutelage and
who are prepared to carry on the work of healing.
If I, as a father, find it so difficult for me ever to realize that my children are no longer children,
how hard it must be for a man who regards men and women as children ever to shift. But this
must not blind me to the thing that stirred me this morning, and that is the insight which led him
to go to Africa, that flowered finally, and the phrase with which his life is identified, reverence
for life, the recognition of the will to live as manifests in all aspects of life, including the
individual person who experiences it.
And that life seems to be in a grim conflict with itself. That life lives by consuming itself, and
this, of course, may be the raw material out of which the spiritual insight, which has to do with
life everlasting, life eternal, may be grounded. I'm not sure. That life consumes life, and
therefore, life does not die. Individuals die. Manifestations of life die, but life does not die,
because life consumes its vitality over and over again.
And yet, when men become conscious of this, their own experience of life in themselves-- when
they become aware, personally aware, of what Schweitzer calls the will to live, then this
awareness of what is moving through them tempers their attitude towards themselves, and it
enables them always constantly to be working to try to further, and to develop, and to make
wider, the levels of consciousness of this will to live. And as it moves out with regard to other
manifestations of life, then the problem becomes more acute and more terrifying, doesn't it?
I want to reveal life. I want to put my-- how to say this-- my humanness, yes, my humanness, at
the disposal of any trapped life that's trying to extricate itself from that which threatens and
destroys.
And the thing that shocked me this morning as I listened to this broadcast was the fact that
without ever realizing it, my own heart had hardened in a way that frightened me. I found that I
wasn't moved except as to my mind by the spectacle of 1,400 people dying from smallpox, or
3,000 people buried by an avalanche, or eight or nine people mowed down by machine guns. I
had detachment with reference to this, as if either they were no longer part of the human race or I
was not a part of the human race.
But as I began to work myself back into some area of tenderness and sensitiveness, the whole
world of meaning of the thing that was threatening the very grounds of my own spiritual integrity
burst wide open. How can I put my life at the disposal of all the life that is trapped around it?
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How can my will to live make common cause with the will to live of the person in my world to
whose needs are exposed to me? How can I do this without drawing a line somewhere in order
that I myself may not be destroyed?
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And I begin to feel then that the identification of my life, my humaneness, with the needs of
other forms of lives and human life may ultimately cause me to make the great decision that the
most significant thing that I can do to maintain and further life is to give up my own life. Then I
began to think further about all the other forms of life that are not human, and what right do I
have to take them. All the thousands, and thousands, and thousands of animals, because of the
far-reaching experimentations that have been done on them, I am able to enjoy a certain amount
of health now that would not have been true if this had not been done.
Is there any mood-- what I'm getting at-- is there any mood that will grow out of my own sense
of reverence for life that will enable me to keep alive and not lose my mind? To keep alive a
writhing, persistent sense of guilt when the necessity is upon me to do the violent thing on behalf
of some larger good that may be redemptive to a larger section of life? To keep alive my sense of
guilt and involvement in all the trapped life at all the levels and perhaps in order that I may be
able to respond to the trapped life at the human level?
I remember reading some years ago a statement [INAUDIBLE] biography in which she felt that
Christianity had somehow misunderstood one of the most important insights of Jesus, that
reverence for life, for human life, that kind of imperative that comes from that, this is rooted in
reverence for all of life, for the sparrow that falls by the roadside, for this or that, for the grass,
for the flowers. And she said that if human beings do not have a sense of guilt for the destruction
of so-called subhuman forms of life, then the way is open for them to have no guilt for the
destruction of human life.
For she says, if I say to myself I will kill this rattlesnake, because the rattlesnake is dangerous
and is a threat to me, the only thing I need to do is to redefine a man as a rattlesnake, and I can
kill him in the same way. That all I need to do is to define him so that he is no longer in the
human race, in the human family, and then I am free of guilt.
How can I keep alive my sense of guilt without bogging down so that it is always an incentive
that drives me in the widest possible dimensions of my living to seek out fresh ways by which I
may participate in acts of atonement for the redemption of individual life or group life? How can
I keep myself always exorcised that the life in me may not die, but that the life in me will join
through your need to the life in you?
And this little union is one very creative answer to all the aspects of life that are divisive and
destructive. And it may be that this joining of life-- my life and your life-- is an intimation of
what ultimately must be the way and the meaning of life for us all. And the dreamers have talked
about this, haven't they?
You've seen that ad, those of you who look at television, you've seen the ad of some chewing
gum, I believe, or something, of a lion walking down the streets in a town, and he walks into a
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Transcription
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store, and looks around, and walks into another place. And people are going and coming. He's at
home, and they are at home.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
If this isn't ultimately what life is all about, then as I feel it today, it is better that there be no life- that there be no life. The lion and the lamb together. The child putting his hand over the hole of
an asp, and the asp relaxing its violent intent and not stinging the child.
That a man, by private and collective will and decision and as a result of what pushes up for him
within him, beats his sword into a plow shear and a spear to a pruning hook. I must find at the
level of my little life how I can do this-- that my heart will not get hard and that I may not be
indifferent to the anguish of life, forgive the weakness, redeem even that which we regard as
good, our Father, that we may find our way in to the order of life that will joy Thy spirit and
pleasure Thy mind.
[CHORAL SINGING]
5
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-654_A.html" ></iframe>
Location
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Marsh Chapel, Boston University, Boston, Massachussetts
Internal Notes
Notes for project team
Where it says "inaudible" towards the end of the transcription, is the name "Olive Schreiner."
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
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394-654_A
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Albert Schweitzer (9), 1962 Jan 14
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
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GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-7915565.7490374 5213612.6443988))
Date
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1962-01-14
Description
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This sermon is the ninth of nine in a series of sermons given in Marsh Chapel that are titled "The Inward Journey." In this sermon, it appears that Howard Thurman intended to speak of Albert Schweitzer's work in relation to mysticism and religious experience; however, what we find in this sermon is Thurman reflecting upon the call of the religious leader in a time of societal unrest. He notes that there are two major events happening at this time: smallpox infesting Pakistan, and the murder of numerous Muslim men and children. He uses Albert Schweitzer and Olive Schreiner to reveal the significance of the religious practitioner giving their own life on behalf of those whom are suffering in place of a sermon that was expected (by the original audience) to be about identity, mysticism, and religious experience.
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Described by Dustin Mailman
Africa
Albert Schweitzer
Anglican Church
avalanche
Bishop Colenso
bushbacks
Christianity
cognitive dissonance
contextuality
creativity
current events
ecology
experience
incarceration
Jesus
kenosis
life
meditation
monkeys
murder
Olive Schreiner
On the Edge of the Primeval Forrest
ox
Pakistan
reverence
smallpox
the great decision
tobacco
vitality
William Blake
Zulu
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056406b1b52b85c5936d0cd8aa88ff5c
PDF Text
Text
Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-220_A.mp3
And there is-- there is a faith that is given, faith in God. And there is a faith that is accepted. And
when I accept that which is, given then, I have found that which is able to answer all of the
deepest and most searching needs of my life.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
And one of the chapters in Jesus and the Disinherited, I try to put this into words, the thing that
perhaps more deeply than any other experience of my life stands behind as the image and the
qualitative overtone of all that I've been trying to say.
You may recall it, those of you who've either heard it or read it, but it was the year of the great
comment, Halley's Comet in 19-something, 8, 9, 10, 11, somewhere. And I had not seen the
comet, because I had to go to bed at sunset. Some of the older boys, or younger boys whose
parents were less disciplined than mine, permitted their sons to stay up later than sunset and they
had seen it. They told me about the comet.
We were living in a little town in Florida called Lake Helen. It was a sawmill town. And my
stepfather was an operator at the sawmill. And one day, when he came home for lunch, he was
telling my mother about a strange man who had come down to the office. The man who owned
the sawmill was a man whose name was Conrad.
He came to Mr. Conrad's office, selling what he called comet pills. And if you took the pills
according to direction, when the tail of the comet struck the Earth, you would be protected. So
Mr. Conrad had bought a supply of these and distributed them to his strategic personnel, so that
when the bottom dropped out of everything, he could start business. And my stepfather was one
of these strategists.
He brought some of the pills home. The next night, I was awakened by my mother. And she
asked me if I wanted to see the comet. So I dressed very quickly and walked with her out into the
back yard. And there in the sky I saw this giant. It was near the time when the comet was almost
ready to circle the Sun, so that it was all tail and no head.
And this tail spread out in a misty fan-like fashion across the heavens. And I watched this in the
way that perhaps a bird must watch the eyes of a snake when he's charmed. And then, I said,
mama, what will happen to us when that thing falls out of the sky?
And not hearing any word from her, but I felt her hand tighten on my shoulder. And I looked up
in her face and one bit of moisture dropped on my cheek from her eye. And I saw in her face
something that I had seen on there one time before. And that was when I walked into a room
without knocking and I found her kneeling by her bed in prayer and the moonlight fell across her
face.
And then, she said, nothing will happen to us, Howard. God will take care of us. Now, I have
lived hard since those days. And I know that life is as hard as pig iron. I have not worn blinkers.
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But the insight of my mother, simple, unsophisticated sensitive, creative, free insight is after all
the ultimate warrant that the spirit of man has to say not only about the meaning of life, but about
the meaning of death.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. Leave us not alone. Oh, God of our spirits, leave us not alone.
[CHOIR SINGING]
2
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Description
An account of the resource
An image of Halley's Comet, taken on May 29, 1910, by Professor Edward Emerson Barnard at Yerkes Observatory, in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. Published in the New York Times on July 3, 1910.
Creator
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Professor Edward Emerson Barnard
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<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Halley%27s_Comet_-_May_29_1910.jpg">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Halley%27s_Comet_-_May_29_1910.jpg</a>
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Featured Thurman Recordings
Description
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This collection highlights individual lectures, sermons, interviews, prayers, and meditations given by Howard Thurman throughout his professional career.
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<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-220_A.html" ></iframe>
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Cathedral of St. John, New York City, New York
Time Period
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1950s
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394-220_A
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Thurman, Howard
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The Witness of God (conclusion/excerpt) (St. John's Cathedral), 1959 Dec 6
Date
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1959-12-06
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<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
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audio
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Description
An account of the resource
In his conclusion to “The Witness of God,” Thurman discusses how deep faith is experienced at the moment that one chooses to accept the faith that God gives. Such faith is brought to life by a penetrating sense of confidence in God’s will. In the candid words of Thurman’s mother who soberly said to him during a moment of disquiet, “God will take care of us,” she echoes, he believes, the ultimate expression of all that humanity could offer regarding the meaning of life and death.
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<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.
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GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(-8233379.8650622 4983443.4345006))
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Description by Dr. Tim Rainey
death
faith
Halley’s Comet
life
Spirit of Man
-
http://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pittsthurman/original/4ff91af2e1098b10305f096b29ed915c.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI4CD764Y635IGLNA&Expires=1711708800&Signature=%2BmFjATYILO7ngJU4mdqFdk3%2Fitk%3D
2740920b1cbc4639654f090249f1c8dc
PDF Text
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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-185_A.mp3
[BELLS RINGING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Let the words out my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my redeemer.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm beginning today another facet of our discussion of working philosophies of life, and will do
the broadcast which was interrupted last week. 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 cloudburst 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 even 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 are 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's beyond our
powers." "It makes me very sad," said the first leaf. They were silent a while. And then the first
leaf said quietly to herself, "Why must we fall?"
The second leaf asked, "What happens to us when we have fallen? We sink down, down. What is
under us?" The first leaf answered, "I don't know. Some say one thing, some another, but nobody
knows."
The second leaf asked, "Do we feel anything? Do we know anything about ourselves when we
are down there?" The first leaf answered, "Who knows. Not one of all those down there has ever
come back to tell us about it." They were silent again.
Then the first leaf said tenderly to the other, "Don't worry so much about it. You're trembling."
"Oh, that's nothing," the second leaf answered. "I tremble at the least thing now. I don't feel so
sure of my hold as I used to."
"Let's now talk anymore about such things," said the first leaf. The other replied, "No, we'll be.
But what else shall we talk about?" She was silent but went on after a little while. "Which of us
will go first?"
1
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
"There's still plenty of time to worry about that," the other leaf assured her. "Let's remember how
beautiful it was, how wonderful, when the sun came out and shone so warmly that we thought
we'd burst with life. Do you remember? And the morning dew, and the mild and splendid
nights."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
"Now the nights are dreadful," the second leaf complained, "and there is no end to them." "We
shouldn't complain," said the first leaf gently. "We've outlived the many, many others." "Have I
changed much?" asked second leaf shyly but determinedly.
"Not in the least," the first leaf assured her. "You only think so because I've gotten to be so
yellow and ugly. But it's different in your case." "You're fooling me," the second leaf said. "No,
really," the first leaf exclaimed eagerly.
"Believe me, you're as lovely as the day you were born. Here and there may be a little yellow
spot, but it's hardly noticeable and only makes you handsomer, believe me." "Thanks,"
whispered the second leaf, quite touched. "I don't believe you, not altogether. But I think you
because you're so kind.
You've always been so kind to me. I'm just beginning to understand how kind you are." "Hush,"
said the other leaf, and kept silent herself, for she was too troubled to talk anymore. Then they
were both silent. Hours passed.
A moist wind blew cold and hostile through the treetops. "Ah, now," said the second leaf. "I--"
Then her voice broke off. She was torn from her place and spun down. Winter had come.
And then one other thing to go along with this. This is called A Song of Living. Because I have
loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die. I have sent up my gladness on wings to be lost in the
blue of the sky. I have run and leaped the rain. I have taken the wind to my breast.
My cheek like a drowsy child to the face of the earth I have pressed. Because I have loved life, I
should have no sorrow to die. I have kissed young love on the lips. I've heard his song to the end.
I have struck my hand like a seal in the hand of a friend.
I have known the peace of heaven, the comfort of work done well. I have longed for death and
the darkness and risen alive out of hell. Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die. I
give a share of my soul to the world where my course is run.
I know that another I shall finish the task I must leave undone. I know that no flower, no flint,
was in vain on the path I trod. As one looks on a face through a window, through life, I have
looked on God. Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
Death is a common part to the experience of all living things. It represents a radical form of
failure-- the failure of the organism. All life moves in a cycle from birth to its end. And the cycle
is a very logical one. Birth, babyhood, childhood, youth, manhood, maturity, old age.
But death is not a part of this cycle. Death, in some sense, is outside of the cycle, for it may
invade the cycle at any particular point. At babyhood, childhood, youth, manhood, old age.
2
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Death is outside the cycle. Sooner or later, then, every human being must come to grips with the
fact of death as a part of his experience of life.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
Now, this does not mean that the contemplation of death should bring mobility. It does not mean
that it is something of necessity that needs to be dreaded. But it is something which has to be
faced. Therefore, all religions of any kind, however significant they may be, know that they must
at some point-- if they are to meet the deepest needs of the human spirit, they must give to the
human spirit some insight, some feeling, tone, some preparation for dealing with this
fundamental and basic aspect of life.
There are two or three very simple suggestions that I would make about the meaning of death. In
the first place, death is something that belongs in human experience, in all experience, whatever
the nature of the experience may be. Each person is aware that he deals with his experiences at
two levels. As a participant, as has a person who is doing what he is doing, and also as a person
who is observing himself as he does what he is doing.
So this two-fold dimension is the way in which all human beings relate to the experiences of
their lives as an observer of themselves participating in the things that they are doing. Now, it
seems to me all aspects of life, every phase of life in this sense, is episodic. It is something that
the individual is experiencing. But no phase of life is capable of containing all that the individual
is. There is a margin left in which the individual as the observer is never completely involved in
the thing that he is doing.
Now, death is one of the events in life, and it belongs in the category of events, and the scale of
events. And therefore, even with reference to death, the individual is a participant in his own
death. But there is a sense in which he stands outside of it, for the human spirit has the ability to
detach itself from the body.
Now, this means, then, that death is something that takes place in life. There's a sense, you see,
in which life and death are twins or aspects of something larger that we call life-- but
unfortunately we must use the same word-- so that there is a sense in which life and death are
one. There's a sense in which life contains both life and death.
Therefore, death is a thing which happens not to life but which happens in life. It is an
experience in life. But there is a sense in which a man knows that something within him is never
quite penetrated, never quite touched, never quite involved in the experience which he's going
through. Therefore, all religions insist, then, that that which is most fundamentally representative
of the human spirit it is that which transcends both time and space, transcends all events.
And it is this dimension that is eternal. And it is this fulfillment through which the human life
goes, that cause men to feel that they are experiencing eternal life. Because I have loved life in
this sense, then, I shall have no sorrow to die.
[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.
3
�Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC PLAYING]
4
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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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" />
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Descriptions by Dustin Mailman
AudioWithTranscription
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Audio with Transcription
<iframe width="100%" height="820" frameborder="0" src="/files/players/394-185_A.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
Death a Part of Life, 1961 May 12
Time Period
The decade in which the recording was produced.
1960s
Location
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WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts
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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
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394-185_A
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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Death a Part of Life (1961-05-12)
Date
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1961-05-12
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/rp8k9">MSS 394</a>
Format
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audio
Publisher
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<a href="http://pitts.emory.edu/">Pitts Theology Library, Emory University</a>
Rights
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<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 within the We Believe series; Howard Thurman draws upon a parable of two leaves at the end of the Fall season. The two leaves are in conversation with one another, pondering questions of why they must die and who will take their place when they die. After reading this parable, Thurman reflects upon the ways in which all of creation's lived experience participates in death; rendering death as an event that happens in one's life, not something that happens to oneself.
Contributor
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Dustin Mailman
A Song of Living
common experience
death
experience
leaves
life
Oak Tree
parable
peace
transcendence
working paper