HDT: "Not with a slight shudder at the danger, I often perceive how near I had come to admitting into my mind the details of some trivial affair" and I am astonished to observe how willing men are to lumber their minds with such rubbish--to permit idle rumors and incidents of the most insignificant kind to intrude on ground which should be sacred". Shall the mind be a public arena" or shall it be a quarter of heaven itself? ... I find it so difficult to dispose of the few facts which to me are significant that I hesitate to burden my attention with those which are insignificant". I believe that the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality."
GC: Thank you". It's getting clearer now: Prepare; polish the mirror; renounce the trivial; participate in the moral arena". What was it you wrote about participating with our whole bodies?
HDT: Mind, body, heart and soul: "Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine.!
GC: And the conclusion to "Civil Disobedience"? I would like to hear you speak those words".
HDT: "I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose, if a few were to live aloof from it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen."
GC: Thank you". I shall try to remember". And, if I forget from time to time, I'll return here to draw clear water from this well.
HDT: "Only that day dawns to which we are awake."
Gary Corseri has published articles, fiction, poetry and dramas at hundreds of venues worldwide, including, Opednews, The New York Times, and Village Voice. He has published novels and collections of poetry, edited a literary anthology and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has taught at US public schools and prisons and US and Japanese universities. He has performed his work at the Carter Presidential Library.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
