In this message about how we deal with frustrations in life, Thurman discusses the song of the blind man and the Biblical story on which it was based. He points out that there are three ways of dealing with frustration. First, we might strike out against everything around us in bitterness, injuring ourselves and others. Second, we might withdraw and detach ourselves from life, losing our vitality and burning out. But Thurman encourages us to take the third option, "to take the raw materials of our environment and bring to bear upon them the kind of creative vitality, and power, hope, dream, aspiration, yearning, yield, even spiritual conviction so that we can reduce our environment and the things that frustrate us to manageable units of control."

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, “The Blind Man (1958-10-03),” The Howard Thurman Digital Archive, accessed July 9, 2024, https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/153.