In this recording, Thurman asks whether our lives are canals, reservoirs, or swamps. Lives like canals connect people, movements, and purposes. Reservoirs have inlets and outlets in order to store up resources and provide them to others when needed. Swamps are without outlet, only taking in and becoming stagnant and rotted. Thurman asks what form our lives take, and suggests that we become reservoirs, finding ways to replenish our resources "so that there will be an outgoing from us to irrigate many parched places so that all who know us will find in us a benediction breathing peace."

Part of the Collection, We Believe (Television Series, 1958-1965)

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Description by Spencer Roberts

Recorded in WHDH-TV, Boston, Massachusetts

Citation: Thurman, Howard, “Canal, Reservoir, Swamp? (1958-05-02),” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/180.