Sometimes you’re hit with the truth about your state of existence in the world we live in. Today, it really is a dog eat dog world with no sense of compassion, lack of quality and a false sense of purpose. That takes me back to a poem I love to recite when I’m faced with uncertainty or pressed to defined my well being. It’s called a test of a man! The first few words say it all but you have to read the entire thing. “The test of a man is the fight that he makes.” Like myself, on many occasions, I will fight for the other man instead of myself when the time calls for me to fight for myself. Somebody out there understands what I mean and/or saying. I’m a talented individual with ideas that are original, with imagination and the drive to take any company I work for to the level of success they wish to achieve but fail at times to do the same for me. Sunday, the Pastor’s words brought me out of the dream I thought was a reality.
“A man with no vision is a part of the man who does have vision.”
– Pastor Dr Michael A. Freeman
I have vision and it’s time to stop being apart of someone else’s! I want to share this poem with anyone who reads my blog. Thank you for sharing with me!
Invictus
I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance, My head is bloody but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even. I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me. I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.
We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!
I have chosen this latter course, which is more difficult and which entails more risk and hardship than sitting in jail. I have had to separate myself from my dear wife and children, from my mother and sisters, to live as an outlaw in my own land. I have had to close my business, to abandon my profession, and live in poverty and misery, as many of my people are doing. I will continue to act as the spokesman of the National Action Council during the phase that is unfolding and in the tough struggles that lie ahead.