Kelly Miller and Howard Thurman

Theme: The Black Family

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Kelly Miller, Progress and Achievements of Colored People (1913), p. 359-363
Chapter 6: No Experience Contains All
There is something strange and awesome about the quality of mind that keeps it from coming to rest
within any single idea or any single experience! No deed which we ha"e experienced howe"er good
and wonderful it may be can quite contain all that we meant by the thing we ha"e done! No word that
we ha"e e"er uttered can express fully and adequately what we were trying to say! No goal that we
ha"e e"er set before us and achie"ed is e"er capable of containing all that we were seeking! There
always remains a residue that does not e"er get contained by any "essel we may use whether it be a
thought a idea a deed a goal a dream or e"en a life! The something more cries out for expression and
the expression does not e"er quite come off!
#n the entire gamut of our relationship with one another this experience of man is written large! There is
a time when we dream of the perfect relationship$$the perfect union the perfect friendship the perfect
lo"e! %tanding in the first full flush of this newness of lo"e we are often so o"ercome by the "ast
release of life and &oy that we are con"ince that what others ha"e only felt dimly is ours in all its glory
and completeness! This is good' This is wonderful' There is more to our feelings than we are
expressing there is more in our "ision of lo"e than we are experiencing$$howe"er slowly something
else begins to emerge! (e cannot escape the sure persistent sense of inadequacy$$howe"er hard we try!
E"en when our offering of the self is completely accepted and we are to another person far more than
he e"er dreamed that anyone would or could be to him the fact remains that what we are gi"ing is only
partial what we are sharing is less much less than is our desiring!
Therefore to put into the deed less than the best) to gi"e to the relationship only a shadow of the self) to
put at the disposal of the dream only that which is fragmentary and ineffecti"e is to spend one*s days
stumbling through the darkness! #f man*s best is ne"er quite within his grasp the less than best is
woefully inadequate! There is e"er the hope that what the mind searches for today but does not quite
succeed in finding will be its strength and stay tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow!
%ource: +oward Thurman The #nward ,ourney -./6.0 p! 12$1.
Kelly Miller, Progress and Achievements of Colored People (1913), 340-343
Chapter 19: A Man Becomes His Dream
It is always miraculous to see a dream take shape and form. Dreams in themseles are
made of the chiffon of men!s hopes" desires and aspirin#s. $here may %e no limit to their
fa%ulous unfoldin#" rich in all the ma#ic of the fantastic. A dream may %e held at the
focal point of one!s thinkin# and plannin#" until at last a man %ecomes the liin#
em%odiment of what he dreams.
$his is the first miracle: a man %ecomes his dream& then it is that the line %etween what
he does and is and his dream melts away. A new accent appears in how he thinks" the
si#nature of his dream must #uarantee the inte#rity of his eery act. In some ways he
seems to %e one possessed& and perhaps this is true. $he second miracle appeals when
the outline of the dream %e#ins to take o%'ectie shape" when it %e#ins to %ecome
concrete and to take its place amon# the particular facts of life. $his means that
somethin# more than the man %ecomes the em%odiment of the dream. (thers %e#in to
see the manifestation and to feel the pull of its challen#e. In turn" throu#h sheer
conta#ion" they relate themseles to it and its demands. If the em%odiment takes the
form of an institution it means that at the center of the institution there is a liin#"
pulsin# core which #uarantees not only fle)i%ility %ut also a continuous unfoldin# in an
increasin# dimension of creatiity.
Hence" men who hae %ecome em%odiments of a dream" pro'ect an institution which
%ecomes the em%odiment of the dream which they themseles had already em%odied. It
is of the ery nature of such a dream that it continues to #row" to deelop" to find eer
more creatie dimensions. Hence the dream is always recedin#& it can neer %e
contained in a life" howeer perfect. *o it is with the institution which is its em%odiment.
It must always maintain its dynamic character" and its #reatest si#nificance must eer %e
found in the new hei#hts to which it calls all who share its conta#ion.
*ource: Howard $hurman" Meditations of the Heart +19,-." /10/1.