| |
THE
SAINT
TROUBADOUR
Speaking and Singing Truth and Love
URIAH J. FIELDS
New Book is now Available! 2007
This collection of meditations, essays, poems, lyrics and commentaries, gathered by the author of his writings extending over a half century, forms a manifesto that summarizes his lifework. In the role of a troubadour with a philosopher's heart, he shares how; infusing the activities of life with reverence, compassion and trust makes them come alive with meaning and purpose.
Fields illustrates how the emerging values and efficacy of the spirit empower individuals, strengthen relationships, and change people from being ill-natured into peacemakers and vain philosophy into spiritual philosophy that transforms everyday lives. This book tell the story of the author's own personal evolution and transformation that took a leap of faith when he was a leader of the Montgomery Bus Bocott. He declares that during the last three decades while traveling the path of the Mutuality Warrior, (also the path of the Saint Troubadour) his journey and life have been sweet despite obstacles and challenges faced along the way.
This book espouses a way of being that promotes optimum health, individual and social actualization, and the practice of community.
CONTENTS
Author's Note 29
Preface 33
Introduction 37
Part One: "I Think, Therefore I Am" 39
Part Two: The Word Became Life 73
Part Three: Sing a New Song 133
Part Four: Life Is the Witness 211
Part Five: Toward a Philosophy of Being 315
Coda 407
Author's Note
At the age of twenty, midway through my four-year tour of duty in the military, I wrote my first poem, titled "I Was the Only One in Love." I wrote it following the breakup; of a romantic relationship. It would be twenty years later before I would write another poem.
During all of my adult life I have had a deep love for reading poetry. Sermon I preached in the church where I served as the pastor for nine years during my late twenties and early thirties were often spiced with poetry. I can remember using these poetic sayings, perhaps, much too often, Shakespeare's "To thine own self be true," William Cullen Bryant's "Truth crushed to earth, shall rise agan," James Russell Lowell's "They are slaves who dare not be in the riight with two or three" and my favorite writer, Henry David Thoreau's "I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right."
During the last half of my life the words of Thoreau's that have meant most to me are these:
"Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companion, it is perhaps because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however, measured or far away."
Noticeably, many of the ideas in this book are written in the first person. Nearly all of them are person-centered. There is a recognition that in human relationships and in the practice of community the individual is central, especially when the focus, as it should never case to be, is on self-responsibility. Whether it be a partnership, group, a community or society, there is a need for indviduals who can function responsibly as an individual and as a member of a collective.
There are many windows in these "mind power ideas'." They are, as the individual titles indicate, insights into awareness of the self and affirmation of the self. It is my hope that they will make reading and rereading this volume rewarding and sustaining. The purpose remains ever the same, to focus the mind and the heart upon the "within" as the true Source and the milieu of the Full Life Process. To embrace as Jesus put it "the kingdom is within you," concept a person has to become aware of, accept, love and express himself.
I have not walked this path alone, although I have had my solitary moments, except Presence wtih a capital "P" has been a constant companion. To those who have encouraged me to write these mind power ideas and shared their reactions to them either with piercing criticism, simple gratitude or searching questions, I give my thanks. A particualr gratitude goes to the late Malathi Sandhu, whose mind and spirit, ever alert to distinguish between the commonplace and the authentic, challenged me to be authentic, to more than a few members of the Mutuality Warrior Corps, participants in seminars, workshops and other human development activities facilitated by me at the Mutuality Center for Creative Living in Los Angeles and readers of the "Full Life Magazine," especially those who expressed their thoughts and feelings in writing to me about the ideas I had presented. Chief among them was Emma Hammond whose critical and poignant arguments challenged me on more than a few occasions to rethink, rewrite and to present again a different version of my thoughts about a particular subject to my readers. My special appreciation goes to members of the Board of Directors of the American Christian Freedom Society, of which I was a founder and president for thirty years who permitted me to take several leaves of absence from my work that afforded me with the opportunity to go within more deeply and more often than I would have been otherwise able to do.
I invite truth seekers to come with me and listen to me speak and sing the truth, wisdom and love that I have learned and felt deeply over a period of more than three score and ten years. Hopefully, what you learn from reading this collection that consists of two hundred and seventy-eight meditations will expand your consciousness and enable you to better express and live the truth, wisdom and love that you possess and are possessed by in your speaking, singing, writing, loving or through whatever means you communicate and release your creative talents.
Preface
During the years I was writing these meditations, at the time not realizing that they would become a book, I was drawn to the writings of Victor E.Frankl, Carl G. Jung, Howard Thurman, Langston Hughes and Norman Vincent Peale. I found their ideas to be special, but not just their ideas, the thoughts and feelings they caused to well up within me. Form them I gained insights and I was challenged to purposefully pursue self-discovery. The result: I discovered my authentic self and developed what I called the Mutuality Philosophy of life that I could live by and present to others who were interested in their own spiritual growth. I began to write creatively and purposefully.
These men were mystics and saints. They would not have described themselves this way. But they knew that they had a clear-channel and divine connection with their Source and a heightening consciousness that enabled them to share insights with people desirious of spiritual growth and more meaning and joy in their lives.
Norman Vincent Peale, a distinguished clergyman, for many years pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City and the renowned author of "The Power of Positive Thinking," inspired me to begin writing these "Mind Power Ideas" in this volume. I wrote my first Mind Power Idea nearly forty years ago, shortly after I subscribed to Dr. Peale's "Creative Ideas" positive thinking magazine.
On August 5, 1993, less than a year before his death, Dr. Peale wrote me a personal letter. This is a portion of that letter:
Dear Dr. Fields:
Thank you so much for your letter, together with a copy of a letter written by you to Dr. Dorothy L. Height. (I had urged Dr. Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women, to cease permitting alcohol and tobacco companies to use her name an photograph in advertising their products under the guise that they were honoring her.) I am blessed to know that my books and articles have been of help to you throughout the years. It is the encouragement of friends like you who encouaged Ruth, myself and our entire staff to continue working to get the Good News out to as many as possible.
I agree with your opinion of the danger of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs and your letter to Dr. Height was a thought-provoking one.
Your point to Dr. Height was well taken.
God bless you richly as you serve him so well!
Cordially,
Norman Vincent Peale.
"Saint Troubadour - Speaking and Singing truth and Love" is appropriately titled. It contains my "weltanschauung" that I sometimes refer to as the "Mutuality Philosophy." Using prose and poetry, I have expressed ideas and components of truth and love, as I understand them, in nuances, simply and with passion. Here, the personal quality is strongly accentuated but not at the expense of social and mutual interelatedness.
These poems and songs speak and sing about life, indicating how it cam be lived fully. The lyrics are also poems that were written primarily to convey messages and, in that sense, meant to be read or spoken, rather than sung. However, for those who sing, and most people do, in some fashion or the other, the poems and lyrics in Part Three, under the caption "Sing a New Song," may be sung. Music appeals to people nearly everywhere and has been at the heart of all human societies. It is a universal language. Moreover, to repeat, anyone would do well to take seriously these words spoken by Henry David Thoreau: "Let him step to the music which he hears however measured or far away."
I wrote these prose poems with the objective of empowering myself. But at the same time, I was aware that they may be of value to other people. The corrrectness of my assumption, in this regard, has been validated many times. People have expressed in letters and during face-to-face conversations their appreciation for what I have said and the manner in which I have expressed it. These poems and songs tell the story of how I developed and applied the Mutuality Philosophy in my daily living. Hopefully, by reading and singing them you will be encouraged to expand your philosophy, even as you heed the wisdom of Pragmatist William James, who said, "The philosophy which is so important to each of us...is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means. It is only partly got from books... ."
Introduction
A You and Me Celebration
This is a you and me celebration, of you and me, by you
and me and for you and me.
Let us be here now, experience what is, create by choice
what we want, and relate fully with each other.
Let our presence be evident.
Real presence is real love, the sharing of self with the
other, the giving of ourselves completely.
We celebrate life.
So in pain or in joy there is meaning.
We are gald, we rejoice, life is delectable.
In celebration our deepest feelings are revealed, and
whether there is pain or joy we are enraptured
as we experience ourselves and our brothers and
our sisters. They look at us, they listen to us, they
understand us; they care deeply about us.
In celebration we strip naked.
We lay bare soul to soul.
We embace each other and the universe in the
eternal now.
We create a human chain of friendship; in which no
link is any weaker than its strongest link.
So you and me, partly human and partly divine,
are all organismic process.
You are me and I am you.
You plus me make one, not two.
That's what it means to celebrate.
So let us celebrate now!
Coda
Some Call It Et Cetera; I Call It God
(A portion of the Coda):
Out of nothingness came beingness--the universe--
earth, water, sky, stars, moon and sun, followed by
plants, fowls and animals, including man, the
masterpiece of Genesis,
Some call it Evolution;
I call it God. ...
Masters mastering themselves: Moses, Jesus, Buddha
Mohammed, Akhenaten, Zoroaster, Confucius;
Sacred Books: the Bible, Torah, Koran Bhagavad
Gita, Faiths: Christianity, Judaism, Buddihism,
Hinduism, Islam; the spiritual essence within every
man that transcends all faiths and engenders
meaning in livingness,
Some call it religion;
I call it God. ...
Listen to the words of Jesus, "The Father and I are
one, I pray that they all may be one, even as the
Father and I are one."
Some call it joint-heirs' inheritance;
I call it God.
The Creator of the created, observing His own
handiwork, said, "And it was good, very good."
Some take g-o-d out of good and call it zero,
I take zero out of good and call it God.
(The other more than three hundred pages, not
quoted above, between the "Introduction" and the
"Coda," there is much to read and enjoy, as indicated
in the aforementioned "Contents." I enjoin you to
purchase my book and partake liberally of the
offerings that await you.)
Book specifications: paperback, 6" x 9"
ISBN: 1-4241-8358-8, 413pp, Pub. 10-12-07.
How to order your copy(s) of
"The Saint Troubadour."
Order your autographed copy from the author.
Send a check or money order in the amount of
$21.95 per copy, plus $3.00 for shipping, payable to:
Uriah J. Fields.
Mail to:
Uriah J. Fields
P. O. Box 4770
Charlottesville, VA 22905
Or, order your copy(s) of this book
from: www. amazon.com or
www. publishamerica.com
(Click on the link page for these
web sites).
_______________________________
Copyright 2007 By Uriah J. Fields
|
