They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Recently, I read a quote by Nikita Gill, and it reinvigorated my sense that God has given us all a purpose in life. She wrote: "Some people are born with tornadoes in their lives, but constellations in their eyes. Other people are born with stars at their feet, but their souls are lost at sea." I believe I was born with stars in my eyes and found my soul at sea. For it was at the age of 18, serving my country at sea through reading the Bible, when the hand of God spoke to me.
Although my journey started the year I was born, 1944, way before I could walk, these were years of innocence and darkness, as it were in the beginning. In 1949, I stepped into the life of my very first best friend. This, of what I wrote in chapter one of my book. Unbeknown, in real-time that my journey had already begun. Baby steps were being taken into the realities of conscious and unconscious bias— into the evils of humankind. From 1949 until 1961, there came trickling's of light as the hand of God spoke in tandem with my heart, and my journey became known in my soul.
I share these thoughts from the seat of my soul because I believe it is a way of letting people into your heart and into your world. Shared passion, fear, guilt, a shared longing, or joy are gifts to the beloved. Places where people share their happiness, guilt, anxiety, and love are where the gospel will flourish.
Finally, I share a recommended read to the avid reader: ---"Revelations on the River: Healing a Nation, Healing Ourselves," by Matthew Dowd. Revelations on the River visits key topics like love, fears and trauma, forgiveness and reconciliation, faith and science, interconnection, and legacies. It is an examination of values that bind us together, in turn, which may lead us as a people to a more enlightened place.
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For me JULY 1944 until this day, 2025 the journey continues >
Man in the Mirror" was written by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett and produced by Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. Listen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9NYDgbKsBE It was released on February 6, 1988, five turbulent years after my retirement from the Navy. I was attending college, having two pre-teens. And dealing with the culture shock as a black man requiring a lot of soul searching and humble isolation to survive. So many times, I felt like giving up. But it was my mom, my dad, and my grandparents' direct and indirect teachings that I could reflect upon, giving me what I call the fuels of wisdom. The role model I have endeavored to emulate, "Against All Odds," as a grand and great granddad. Survival and instincts are synonymous. Any instinct that helps us survive and thrive can be considered a primal instinct. It's been in place for thousands of years. Miniature instincts are in place the minute we are born. To cry, to smile, and as we grow, to walk, to run, to read, to learn, to set goals, and even create generational wealth, even on a rocky road.
In 1974 I was a Facilitator in Race Relations for the Navy's UPWARD Program (Understanding Personal Worth and Racial Dignity). Standing in front of a class, which many times was hostel and closed-minded in their cultural views. Reflecting on my childhood gave me the strength to push on. The phrase, "A child should be seen and not heard." In those days, it was not an oxymoron but intrinsic. Giving way to learning to be a good listener systematically, having to leave the room when the conversation reached adult level was endemic.
In 1972 UNCF, formerly known as United Negro College Fund, rolled out a campaign. The group introduced the tagline, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." That tagline carried me back to my grandpa Charlie Hurt. His words about man, God, and God's green earth resonated. A closed mouth and a listening ear had personified. I had unconsciously learned how not to take negativity personally. Maturing into understanding that mind control is a powerful weapon against humanity's pessimism, which is the devil's gun, the world's worst enemy, when we don't communicate soul-to-soul with God in the mix. I don't have to agree with you, but I will give respect where respect is given.
Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. Psalms 119:6
The Ideology of Hate and Darwinism is an unwritten Manifesto of Mother Nature. Two men, Adrian Desmond and James Moore, between 1809 and 1882, shattered Darwin's theories, claiming his hatred of Slavery shaped his Views on Human Evolution. The myth of 'race' by leading apologists for Slavery in Darwin's time argued that blacks and whites were separate species, with whites created superior, still lingers to this day and has caused an enormous amount of human and social damage.
Statement on race (1950) is the first statement on race issued by UNESCO. The introduction states that it was inevitable that UNESCO should take a position in the controversy. The preamble to the UNESCO constitution states that it should combat racism. The constitution itself stated that "The great and terrible war that has now ended was a war made possible by the denial of the democratic principles of the dignity, equality and mutual respect of men, and by the propagation, in their place, through ignorance and prejudice, of the doctrine of the inequality of men and races.
The 1950 UNESCO statement contributed to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
The summers before my teenage years, being in the presence of my Grandfather Charlie Hurt, manifested an unknown desire only to be realized more vividly each decade of my life. Believing in God and understanding man's place in God's creation was his philosophy planted deeply at the seat of my soul. Holy Week gives me the inclination to share a portion of this short story from my site… http://www.bookmystory.net/HENRYS-SHORT-STORYS.html
From the robustness of insects to the mind of man, from the jaws of an animal to the mouth of man, all are seen to be in the most harmonious relation to the things of nature and God's outward world. Foliage all comes from the earth's nutrients. Thus, proving a design presided in the world's creation implies there was a designer, in other words, a creator. God's face is reflected in man's soul as a pool of water reflects the glorious sun. The theory, therefore, of natural selection is unto that of a creator designer, God.
The natural relationship between humans, plants, and animals is essential for maintaining the ecosystem balance, which man in the 1800s from a science perspective, began to call the theory of natural selection. Charles Darwin, who coined the term "survival of the fittest," and Alfred Wallace are credited with developing this theory, a key mechanism of evolution.
Reflecting as a child and the many words of my grandfather, Charlie Hurt, "Everything you hear, feel, touch, taste, and smell is at the will of God," so "Take care of the earth, and it will take care of you." As I matured, it made sense, it was Genesis 1:28.
