I don't feel no ways tired
I've come too far from where I've started from
Nobody told me that the road would be easy
And I don't believe he's brought me this far to leave me
I just can't give up now
I've come too far from where I started from
Nobody told me that the road would be easy
And I don't believe he's brought me this far to leave me
I don't feel no ways tired
I've come too far, I've come way too far from where I started from
Nobody told me, nobody told me the road would be easy
And I don't believe he's brought me this far
And I don't believe he's brought me this far
I don't believe he's brought me this far to leave me
I don't believe he's brought me this far
I don't believe he's brought me this far to leave me
He won't leave me behind
I don't believe he's brought me this far to leave me
No, no not gonna leave, no no no no
I don't believe he's brought me this far to leave me
You always stick by my side
I don't believe he's brought me this far to leave me
And you can always hear this long sob story: "You know it takes time." For three hundred years, we've given them time. And I've been tired so long, now I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we want a change.
I wonder what Ms. Hamer would say to our current state of affairs? I think she might sing I Don’t Feel Noways Tired. As much as she was sick and tired, she knew that we couldn’t give up then and we can’t give up now on change.
We celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday a couple of weeks ago. We celebrated one who may have been sick and tired, but gave his all to the movement. During his time at the Birmingham Jail, King quoted a seventy-two-year-old woman of Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride the segregated buses, and responded to one who inquired about her tiredness with ungrammatical profundity, "My feets is tired, but my soul is rested." Much later, the night before his assassination, King said, in essence the same thing. He said, “Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land! So I'm happy tonight, I'm not worried about anything! I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”
King was feeling noways tired, although he was most certainly sick and tired…his soul was rested. King knew that God would not forsake him…that the movement of God and the movement of the people would go on, even though he might not be there. This commitment to change…to the truth…despite possible harm to the self is rare. It is an acknowledgment of our connection to life and to each other…that we are all part of the web of life…interconnected and interdependent.
This interconnection is complete and total…it is borne out in our very bodies and minds. This may seem like something that we all should know, but it has been, and to some extent, still is a hard-won realization for many. This is at least partially due to the profound influence of thinkers like Descartes and others who saw the human as a machine…a machine run by the brain. This machine had no use for the body outside of what we had to do in the world. The body had no say. This philosophy infiltrated all fields and the bodies of individuals as well. It has caused us to shut down our instincts and our awareness of sensations in the body, causing a wall to form…an obstacle to understanding each other and to healing from the inevitable trauma we experience as creatures in the world. One would think that that has all changed now…especially in the field of psychotherapy. One of the most prominent books of the past years was The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk. Another is When the Body Says No by Gabor Mate. Another psychologist that is at the cutting edge of this realization and is actually translating this reality into a language of action…antiracism action, is Resmaa Menakem. These scholars have made the connection between a person’s experience of trauma in their life and dysfunction in the body and mind. I see this first-hand in those around me…both personally and professionally. It is often very difficult to convince someone that it will be a healing experience to cultivate body awareness. Many see it as terrifying and for good reason. For many it is the place of past terrors that have become stuck in the body.
Howard Thurman, among many others, said that the longest journey you will ever take is from your head to your heart. He even used the title, With Head and Heart for his autobiography. Thurman knew we needed the body in order to heal…he knew that the body and the nervous system were involved in our experience of what he called the great miracle…the blending of the spirit in the human being and the spirit of God into one creative illumination. One creative illumination…he spoke often of the illumination of the spirit brought about by our bodily experiences. He recalled his grandmother relating the prayer meetings during the time of slavery, when the preacher would say, You – are not slaves. You are God’s children. Thurman said, how everything in me quivered with the pulsing tremor of raw energy when…she would come to the triumphant climax of the minister…
This was the moment of illumination…the point that causes one to be noways tired…the point where we reach the conclusion that there is the extra breath in the exhausted lung…the point where we realize that we are all part of the original flowing forth…of what we now see as our creation story…born of the explosion of the stars…we are bits of stardust, along with all other elements of life on our planet. This realization that we are bits of light was shared by many others who have been able to light the way…such as Ella Baker who said, Give light, and people will find the way…and another that spoke to me as a young person…Dick Gregory:
When we understand we’re light then things change! He’s right of course…bits of light animated by our creator…bits of light, like the light of the candle…
included by Howard Thurman in his book, The Growing Edge.
A candle is a small thing. But one candle can light another.
And as it gives its flame to the other, see how its own light increases!
YOU ARE SUCH A LIGHT.
Light is the power to dispel darkness.
You have this power to move back the darkness in yourself and in others –
with the birth of light created when one mind illuminates another,
when one heart kindles another, when one person strengthens another.
And its flame also enlarges within you as you pass it on.
Throughout history children of darkness have tried to smother
this passage of light from person to person.
Throughout history dictators, large and small, have tried to darken,
diminish and separate people by force.
But always in the end they fail.
For always somewhere in the world the light remains;
ready to burn its brightest where it is dark;
a light that began when God created the world…
This is the light that we must all find within that will allow us to be noways tired…that will allow us to move forward even in what seem to be dark times…light that will illuminate the truth of the past and of the present moment…on a personal level and on a communal or national level. WE do it by reaching inside to that trysting place…within the heart…the soul…the body…the place where that creative illumination holds sway. May we enter that space and find the hope of our ancestors and our companions…the voice of the wind and the rain, the trees and other creatures…lifting up their voices, along with the all-pervading presence, cheering us on.
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