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Pitts Theology Library
The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
394-800.mp3
This is tape number ET60 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. Two
meditations by Howard Thurman. This is side 1 entitled "The Moment of Truth."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my redeemer.
[MUSIC]
I'm beginning today by reading two paragraphs, which a Canadian friend of mine sent to me
several years ago. "Eight-year-old Johnny was very serious when I called him into the hospital
and explained how he could save the life of his little sister. Mary, age six, was near death, a
victim of a disease from which Johnny had made a miraculous recovery only two years earlier."
"Now, Mary's only chance was a blood transfusion from someone who had previously conquered
the illness. Since the two children had the same rare blood type, Johnny would be the ideal
donor. 'Johnny," I ask, 'would you like to give your blood for Mary?' He hesitated for a moment,
his lower lip trembling, but I have seen many people older than Johnny who were frightened by
the idea of giving blood. So I thought no more about it."
"Then he smiled and said, 'Sure, Dr. Morris. I'll give my blood for my sister.' The operating room
was prepared and the children wheeled in, Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and almost
cherubic. Neither spoke, but when their eyes met, Johnny grinned broadly. As Johnny's blood
pulsed into Mary's veins, her pale skin began to turn pink. There was complete silence as the
operation proceeded, but then Johnny spoke in a brave little voice I will never forget. 'Say, Dr.
Morris, when do I die?'"
"It was only then that I realized what that moment's hesitation that almost imperceptible
trembling of the lip had meant when I talked to Johnny in my office. He thought that giving up
his blood for his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment of truth, he made his great
decision."
When a man becomes aware of the essential or the intrinsic or authentic meaning of an act or a
person or a situation or an event and the bearing of that act or situation, person, or event upon his
private life, he experiences a moment of truth. When he becomes aware of the authentic or
intrinsic meaning of something and the bearing that that meaning has upon his private life, he
experiences a moment of truth.
There are several elements that are to be remembered here. The first is that it is always a
personal and private and solitary experience. We spend so much of our time associating with
other people, we are so involved in the human situation and the human predicament that we
forget that fundamentally, so much of a man's life is lived in solitariness in all of the great
moments of life, whether it is at the moment of his birth or the moment of his dying, whether it
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
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has to do with some great significant step that he is about to take when deep within himself he
makes the decision of commitment.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
All of these are intimate and personal and primary and solitary. And the moment of truth takes
on this character. It is as if you and the experience alone existed in the world. It's like trying to
explain something to a little child. You will explain it, and then the child will say, but why,
continue asking the same question. And then you explain it again, and the child will say, but
why?
And then you try to find a way by which you can find the proper words that will fit into the
context of meaning of the child and then utter these words so that the child understands. And
when the child looks into your face and says, oh, I understand, it is as if the child and the
moment alone existed in all the universe. It is a private opening of the life to a meaning which is
personal, yes, but at the same time, which expands out into a context of all the meaning that there
is.
Now, the moment of truth then has in it the element that is solitary, that is personal and private.
And it also has in it a certain element of commitment, a certain element of involvement. I guess
that's the best way to put it.
I am reminded of one of the experiences in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, when in the early
part of his career, it seemed as if he had air conditioning against leprosy. He could abide almost
anything else except leprosy. This was so loathsome to him that he felt always as if he should
move in the other direction or put as much space between him and the leper as possible.
Shortly after his great commitment of his life, the story goes that he was riding along on a horse
or walking. I don't remember that detail. But around the bend in the road, he encountered a leper,
and for him it was a moment of truth because all the meaning of the disease as it expressed itself
through the loathsome body of this man and the bearing that this disease had upon the sensitivity
of Saint Francis, all of this converged in one swirling moment of encounter. And Francis drew
back, turned, and started to flee in the opposite direction.
And then he heard the voice, always the voice, reminding him of his commitment, that his
commitment was something that was absolute, that he had given up in his commitment the
initiative over his own life. Therefore, any sensitivity and all of these things were luxuries, which
his life could no longer afford.
And he turned around, embraced the leper, and the story goes that he went with the leper back to
the place where the leper lived, and he stayed there for several days administering to his need.
The moment of truth is the moment when the intrinsic, authentic, significant meaning of an event
or a person or a situation is sensed clearly and directly by an individual and the bearing that this
meaning has on the man's life.
Now, the moment of truth then carries with it always the element of commitment. For when I
experience the moment of truth, it is a total involvement, a total encounter so that my life, not
some phase of my life, some dimension of my life, some aspect of my life, but my life in some
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
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total sense is affected, is altered, shifts, changes, moves, makes some kind of adjustment to the
fact that I have had such an encounter.
It is solitary. It is personal. It involves the total commitment of the life in a direction contrary,
perhaps, to the way one had been going before.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my rock and my redeemer.
[MUSIC]
This is tape number ET60 from the library of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust. This is
side 2 entitled "Pearl Without Price."
[MUSIC]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my strength and my redeemer.
[MUSIC]
I'm reading from Meditations of the Heart, "The Pressure of Crisis." "When Lloyd George, the
British statesman, was a boy, one of his family responsibilities was to collect firewood for
warmth and for cooking. He discovered early that always after a very terrific storm, with high
winds and driving rain, he had very little difficulty in finding as much and more wood than he
needed at the time."
"When the days were beautiful, sunny, and the skies untroubled, the firewood was at a premium.
Despite the fact that the sunny days were happy ones for him, providing him with long hours to
fill his heart with delight, nevertheless, in terms of other needs, which were his specific
responsibilities, they were his most difficult times."
"Many years after, he realized what had been happening. During the times of heavy rains and
driving winds, many of the dead limbs were broken off, and many rotten trees were toppled over.
The living things were separated from the dead things. But when the sun was shining and the
weather was clear and beautiful, the dead and the not dead were undistinguishable."
"The experience of Lloyd George is common to us all. When all is well with our world, there is
often no necessity to separate the dead from the not dead in our lives. Under the pressure of
crisis, when we need all available vitality, we are apt to discover that much in us is of no account
and valueless."
When our tree is rocked by mighty winds, all the limbs that do not have free and easy access to
what sustains the trunk are torn away. There is nothing to hold them fast. It is good to know what
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there is in us that is strong and solidly rooted. It is good to have the assurance that can only come
from having ridden the storm and remained intact."
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
"Far beside the point is the why of the storm. Beside the point too, maybe the interpretation of
the storm that makes it an active agent of redemption. Given the storm, the fact of it, it is wisdom
to know that when it come, the things that are firmly held by the vitality of life are apt to remain
chastened but confirmed, while other things that are dead, sterile, or lifeless are apt to be torn
away."
"The wheat and tares grow up together, but when the time of harvest comes, only wheat is
revealed as wheat and tares remain what they have been all along-- tares." It is a very simple
remark that again and again, when life seems to be running smoothly, when all things seem to
fall into line and we are sure that, for us, this is the good time, the time of a sudden kind of
psychic or spiritual or actual physical prosperity.
And during such times, there is no necessity, no felt necessity for assessing our equipment for
life, our strengths, our needs. In our own country, for instance, one of the most critical problems
that faces religion, that faces organized religion, that faces the church or the synagogue is, what
does religion say to a people who are fat? Who have everything? Who are so surfeited with good
food and rich food that they must spend millions of dollars in trying to get rid of the logic of the
good food that they're eating?
Is there any word that can be addressed to a man who has everything and to whom the world, in
a sense, is his oyster? This is the point here. At such times, we are apt to live life rather casually,
to raise no fundamental question about its meaning, about our own sense of direction, about what
our point is. Because our situation does not force us to raise the critical and the crucial question.
But if the time comes, as it does come to everyone, when the normal pattern of general at easeness begins to disintegrate and break down and it is necessary for us to assess life, to think about
what life means, to raise the far-reaching personal question, what is it that I am meaning by all
the things that I am doing. What is my point? Where in the totality of my experience? Is there
provided for me as a person some radical test in the light of which and on the basis of which I
will be able to define what it is that I am trying to do, where it is that I am headed?
For it is only the radical test, the moments which seem to be unmanageable. It is only at a time
when everything seems to be falling apart that a man discovers of what is his substance? What is
his strength? What is there in him that is ultimately dependable? Where in him may be found the
resources that he needs in order to do his thing now in a hard circumstance, in a difficult
moment?
For if life is easy and if life is indulgent, then despite all of the comfort that it may bring, the
most important question that we most want to know about ourselves, we cannot know. And that
question is, what, after all, ultimately, do I'd amount to? How much can I take? How much can I
stand and not give, not yield, not buckle under?
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The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
Transcription
thurman.pitts.emory.edu
Am I a real man so that when I take my stand, I can absorb whatever it is that life has to offer?
And then I get something that is the pearl beyond price. I live with the confidence-- and this is of
overwhelming importance. I live with the confidence and the strength that I can stand anything
that life can do to me.
Pitts Theology Library
Emory University
[MUSIC]
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, oh, Lord,
my rock and my redeemer.
[MUSIC]
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
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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/394-800.html" ></iframe>
Original Title
Title as transcribed from tape cassette
The Moment of Truth; Pearl without Price (ET-60; GC 12-4-71), 1971 Dec 4
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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394-800
Creator
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Thurman, Howard
Title
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The Moment of Truth (1963-04-19); Pearl without Price (1971-12-4)
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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1963-04-19
1962-03-23
Description
An account of the resource
In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reads from a letter that his friend from Canada sends him. Within the letter, the listener hears of a young boy who makes the decision to participate in a blood transfusion for his sister. In agreeing to participate in the transfusion, the boy misunderstood, and assumed that he would have to die in order to save his younger sister's life. Thurman sees this boy's misunderstanding as a "moment of truth." The moment of truth speaks to one's sense of courage, responsibility, creativity, and sacrifice. Embedded into this moment of truth is a reaction that comes from the tension between one's personal and public life. Thurman invites the listener to discern what their "moment of truth" is and challenges the listen to what their "moment of truth" is calling them to do.
In this recording within the We Believe Series, Thurman reads from his book, "Meditations of the Heart." In this reflection, Thurman reflects upon what it means to look at life critically. When things are going well, the difficult and the not-difficult aspects of life blend together; however, when one is in desperation, one is able to critique and names the parts of life that are difficult. This conversation speaks to Thurman's wider work concerning the tension goodness and innocence.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Description by Dustin Mailman
commitment
decision
dichotomy
encounter
experience
goodness
innocence
Lloyd George
meditations of the heart
moment of truth
pearl
responsibility
sacrifice
solitary
spiral
St. Francis
test
truth