Several years ago, I was awarded the honor of attend a City of Roanoke monthly business breakfast. The meetings are designed to give individual business owners an opportunity to share thoughts, suggestions, grievance, or other comments as they relate to doing business in the City of Roanoke, to enhance and lend guidance to its increasing momentum of unified growth.
Emphasis is also being geared toward attracting youth to the City while providing ongoing attractions, services, jobs and other encouragement to local youth of every age and quadrant of the City. Never before had I ever felt and observed such a soaring spirit of optimism in promoting citywide progress.
It is always a necessary part of growth to point out the innumerable things that remain unaddressed or unsatisfactory within our respective neighborhoods, but in this new age of compulsory coping, networking and partnerships a new spirit of involvement is replacing the old outmoded divisive systems that beget rivalry and subsequent bitterness that extends throughout generations.
For centuries this beautiful city has been victimized by such animosities, not only between the races but also by division within the races as well.
We have long heard the old adage that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” So, too, is ugliness and whatever negative thoughts and actions we may dwell uon that paralyze initiative and growth – our own as well as that of others.
A favorite Baha’i passage reminds me “The virtues and attributes pertaining unto God are all evident and manifest and have been mentioned and described in all the Holy Books. Among them are trustworthiness, truthfulness, purity of heart, forbearance, resignation to whatever the Almighty hath decreed, contentment with the things His will hath provided, patience – nay thankfulness – in the midst of tribulation, and complete reliance, in all circumstances, upon Him.”
I have no doubt that age and experience play a huge part in my recognition and appreciation of such divine wisdom as, Lord knows, I have drank deep from each cup and understand full well the devastating effects of “dwelling on unpleasant thngs in life” as mentioned in one Baha’i prayer. By no means do we suggest forgetting such unpleasant things which, when place in proper perspective can provide necessary guidance. But to dwell on such negativity inevitable reduces us to lowest terms.
Those who would tour the Downtown Market and Henry Street areas of Roanoke who have not done so lately would discover several major changes and additions. Among them the Fine Arts Museum, the Higher Education Building, and the full length bronze statues of Dr. Martin Luther King and Henrietta Lacks, the Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development. It would be hard not to become excited over the many changes evident in our city although we may not be proud of the manner in which much of it was made.
Through it all however, it is time to board the “trolley of transition,” put our shoulders to the wheel and become revitalized by and included in the accelerated spirit of hope and cooperation. It would behoove us to learn well the “process of progress” even when unable to appreciate or affect how it is being made. To do otherwise creates a perpetual “acid that does more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than to the objects on which it is poured
We would then offer this food for thought to City officials and administrators of the pas, present and the future: “Beautify your tongues, O people with truthfulness, and adorn your soul with the ornament of honesty. Beware, O People, that ye deal not treacherously with anyone.” (Baha’i Holy Writings)
Investigate!
