With the switch from summer to fall followed almost instantly this year with overnight winter and even snow on the first day of November in several surrounding areas right here in the Southwest Virginia, it is quite obvious that seasonal change in weather is very unpredictable.
Equally unpredictable are the seasons of life in this fast paced society of “guided missiles and misguided men,” as referred to by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The more precise the technology, the looser the morals projected through it as opposed to the more structured family unit and disciplined life style of old.
As at the end of this week I will have passed yet another milepost along life’s journey, I am immeasurably blessed to have experienced growing up during the most historic era this nation (and possibly the world) has ever witnessed when science and technology have made the most quantum leaps. I have also been equally blessed to have been placed in the most enviable positions through my association with the print media (and Black press in particular)–all through the historic era from legal segregation to court-ordered desegregation to resegregation–overt as well as covert. This lifetime association with the print media represents the epitome of freedom that few ever handle well for very long before abusing it.
My first two years of school (in Lynchburg,VA) was my only experience with public school systems. Third grade through high school graduation was in Quaker schools after my father, F.E. Alexander, accepted pastorate of First Memorial Baptist Church of Cambria, VA in 1935. There were no schools for Blacks west of Salem, VA in those days through Montgomery County. It was during his pastorate that he named the church Schaeffer Memorial Baptist against the wishes of many within the congregation. It remains to date the only one of some 27 churches built for Blacks by Captain Charles S. Schaeffer that bear his name.
As our family was neither prolific nor close knit through my early childhood, family gatherings were generated usually by funerals or the annual summer visit to my mother’s home place in Fayetteville, WV (no, not NC). Subsequently my attention, energies and meager resources have been primarily directed more toward unification of the larger family of man upon becoming more aware of its urgency–and my potential role in it through my introduction to the new Revelation of Baha’u’llah (the Baha`i Faith), both in 1972. This has given my entire life broader definition and direction than mere genetic family ties–to a family and world in which I never seem to fit. It is through the steady stream of Holy Writings (for this New Day that I share weekly) that I first realized that my lifelong inability to feel deep seated love for particular individuals, places and things was not a curse but a blessing once learning, we must “purify ourselves of all hate and love” to become pure instruments through which God’s love may flow to others.” Then, “Beseech ye the Lord thy God that no earthly entanglements, no worldly affections and no ephemeral pursuits will tarnish the purity or embitter the sweetness of that Grace that flows through you.”
God’s love is infinite. Man’s love is finite and usually based on transitory things that fade with time–as too often does the love for them. Neither can infinite love be placed into finite capacity. With this in mind may we arrive at the fast approaching long holiday season with more determination to open our hearts and minds that we may better perceive our “Signs of Guidance throughout the remainder of our respective seasons of life. (Investigate! – 1-800-22unite)
