GARBAGE MEN

“I’m always happy to see a relevant ministry.

It’s all right to talk about long white robes over yonder, in all of its symbolism, but ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It’s all right to talk about streets flowing with milk and honey, but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here and His children who can’t eat three square meals a day. It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day God’s preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

 

Now the other thing we’ll have to do is this: always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now we are poor people, individually we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than $30 billion a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That’s power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles; we don’t need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, “God sent us by here to say to you that you’re not treating His children right. And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment where God’s children are concerned. Now if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.”

 

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy – what is the other bread?– Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now only the garbage men have been feeling pain. Now we must kind of redistribute that pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven’t been fair in their hiring policies, and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

 

Now not only that, we’ve got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a “bank-in” movement in Memphis. Go by the savings and loan association. I’m not asking you something that we don’t do ourselves in SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we’re doing, put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an “insurance-in.” Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base, and at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. And I ask you to follow through here.

Now let me say as I move to my conclusion that we’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. If it means leaving work, if it means leaving school, be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike, but either we go up together or we go down together. Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.

 

One day a man came to Jesus and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. At points he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew and throw him off base. Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from midair and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side; they didn’t stop to help him. Finally, a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying this was the good man, this was the great man because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his brother.

 

Now, you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn’t stop. At times we say they were busy going to a church meeting, an ecclesiastical gathering, and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn’t be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that one who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony. And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem, or down to Jericho, rather, to organize a Jericho Road Improvement Association. That’s a possibility. Maybe they felt it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effect.

But I’m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible that those men were afraid. You see, the Jericho Road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road I said to my wife, “I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable.” It’s a winding, meandering road. It’s really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather, 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho 15 or 20 minutes later, you’re about 2,200 feet below sea level. That’s a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the “Bloody Pass.” And you know, it’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking, and he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”

But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” That’s the question before you tonight. Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job?” Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?” The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” That’s the question.

 

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge, to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.

 

And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you. You know, several years ago I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, “Are you Martin Luther King?” And I was looking down writing and I said, “Yes.”

 

The next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that’s punctured you’re drowned in your own blood, that’s the end of you. It came out in the New York Times the next morning that if I had merely sneezed, I would have died.

 

 

Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheelchair of the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the president and the vice president; I’ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I’d received a visit and a letter from the governor of New York, but I’ve forgotten what that letter said.

 

 

But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter and I’ll never forget it. It said simply, “Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School.” She said, “While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I’m a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”

 

 

And I want to say tonight, I want to say tonight that I, too, am happy that I didn’t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy, which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent.

If I had sneezed, if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.

 

 

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there.

 

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I’m so happy that I didn’t sneeze.

 

And they were telling me. Now it doesn’t matter now. It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane – there were six of us – the pilot said over the public address system: “We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we’ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.”

 

 

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out, or what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers.

Well, I don’t know what will happen now; we’ve got some difficult days ahead. 

But it really doesn’t matter to 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. 

And 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

EARTH-0

When you are ready to listen, Your Beatrice will appear. 

Clark Kent, I Know You’re Secretly Superman!

I Know Everything About You.

I Offer You One Ultimate Chance to Save Her! 

But We Must Leave This World Now Before It’s Too Late!

Sometimes I get the feelin'

She's watchin' over me

And other times I feel like I should go -

And through it all, The Rise and Fall

The bodies in the streets

And when you're gone, we want you all to know

We'll carry on, we'll carry on

And though you're dead and gone, believe me

Your memory will carry on

We'll carry on

And in my heart, I can't contain it

The anthem won't explain it

A World that sends you reeling

From decimated dreams

Your misery and hate will kill us all

So Paint it Black and Take it Back

Let's shout it loud and clear

Defiant to the end, we hear The Call

To Carry On.

When you are ready to listen, Beatrice will appear. 

A man I knew who was at this point on his journey asked me where his guide was. 

He needed her so badly. I suggested he look for her in his active imagination. 

When he did, she appeared instantly and she told him, “I’ve been waiting for you for twenty years. You only had to ask.” 

Beatrice will be there the moment you ask and are truly ready to listen.

Beatrice shows Dante the vision of the unitive world. 

She takes him through the rest of Purgatory and into Heaven. 

Then, at the last moment, she gives way to another guide, St. Bernard, which is puzzling. 

But Beatrice is the psychopomp — a wonderful medieval word for soul guide — who leads Dante through the deep levels of Purgatory into the vision of Heaven, a journey of wholeness and healing. 

Dante owes his success initially to Virgil, but primarily to Beatrice, who leads, inspires, and awakens him spiritually.

“I don’t really know what to say about my race, I’m so proud of them —

I love The Welsh with a passion that’s almost idolatrous, 

and particularly the South Welsh, the people I know best, 

and particularly the mining class.”

For I am Welsh, you know, good My Countryman —

Solitude and Community

  As an intuitive introvert, I rarely feel lonely when I’m alone. 

When I was in my early twenties, I took a job in a lookout tower, firewatching in the forest. 

I was alone on a mountain peak for four months, and I never felt lonely. 

Reality didn’t catch me there. 

I was not in danger of my Queen leaving me. 

But the moment I returned to civilization, loneliness descended on me like a landslide. 

How could I be so happy on the mountaintop and then rubbed so raw when I came back down? 

I didn’t want to live my whole life on a mountaintop—

I’m not a hermit. 

I had to go back and forth, as the King did, until the visionary life could finally stand the impact of the water of reality. 

The Queen in me had to learn to withstand the water. 

It’s a process. 

I believe that everyone who has touched the realm of spirit has had to go through this antechamber.

If you’re honest and perceptive, you can tell the difference between regressive loneliness, the first kind, and the ineffable second and third types of loneliness, where you sense and then see What You Cannot Yet Have. 

The second and third types of loneliness are nearly indistinguishable. 

If you can say exactly what you are lonely for, it will reveal a lot. 

Do you want to go back where you came from, to the good old days? 

Or have you seen a vision you can’t live without? 

They’re as different as Backward and Forward.

Dr. Jung said that every person who came into his consulting room was either twenty-one or forty-five, no matter their chronological age. 

The twenty-one-year-old is looking backward and must conquer it. 

The forty-five-year-old is being touched by something he cannot yet endure. 

These are the only two subjects of therapy.

Solitude

The Garden of Eden and the heavenly Jerusalem are the same place, depending on whether you are looking backward or forward. 

A person touched by Loneliness is a holy person. 

He is caught in the development of individuation. 

Whether it’s a development or a regression depends on what he does with it. 

Loneliness can destroy you, or it can fire you up for a Dante-like journey through Hell and Purgatory to find paradise. St. John of the Cross called this the Dark Night of the Soul.

The worst suffering I’ve ever experienced has been loneliness, the kind that feels as though it has no cure, that nothing can touch it. 

One day, at the midpoint in my life—a little like Dante—I got so exhausted from it that I went into my bedroom, lay face down on my bed, and said, 

“I’m not going to move until this is resolved.” 

I stayed a long time, and the loneliness did ease a little. 

Dante fell out of Hell, shimmied down the hairy leg of the Devil, went through the center of the world, and started up the other side, which was Purgatory. 

I felt better, but as soon as I got up and began to do anything, my loneliness returned. 

I made many round trips until gradually an indescribable quality began to suffuse my life, and loneliness loosened its grip. 

Nothing outside changed. The change was entirely inside.

Thomas Merton wrote a beautiful treatise on solitude. 

He said that certain individuals are obliged to bear The Solitude of God. 

Solitude is Loneliness evolved to the next level of reality. 

He who is obliged to bear The Solitude of God should not be asked to do anything else; it’s such a difficult task. 

For monastics, solitude was one of the early descriptions of God. 

If you can transform your Loneliness into Solitude, you’re one step away from the most precious of all experiences. 

This is the cure for Loneliness.

Excerpt from: "Inner Gold: Understanding Psychological Projection" by Arnie Kotler.

EAST

 

 

Solitude and Community

 

  As an intuitive introvert, I rarely feel lonely when I’m alone. When I was in my early twenties, I took a job in a lookout tower, firewatching in the forest. I was alone on a mountain peak for four months, and I never felt lonely. Reality didn’t catch me there. I was not in danger of my Queen leaving me. But the moment I returned to civilization, loneliness descended on me like a landslide. How could I be so happy on the mountaintop and then rubbed so raw when I came back down? I didn’t want to live my whole life on a mountaintop—I’m not a hermit. I had to go back and forth, as the King did, until the visionary life could finally stand the impact of the water of reality. The Queen in me had to learn to withstand the water. It’s a process. I believe that everyone who has touched the realm of spirit has had to go through this antechamber.

 

 

If you’re honest and perceptive, you can tell the difference between regressive loneliness, the first kind, and the ineffable second and third types of loneliness, where you sense and then see what you cannot yet have. The second and third types of loneliness are nearly indistinguishable. If you can say exactly what you are lonely for, it will reveal a lot. Do you want to go back where you came from, to the good old days? Or have you seen a vision you can’t live without? They’re as different as backward and forward.

 

Dr. Jung said that every person who came into his consulting room was either twentyone or forty-five, no matter their chronological age. The twenty-one-year-old is looking backward and must conquer it. The forty-five-year-old is being touched by something he cannot yet endure. These are the only two subjects of therapy.

 

 

Solitude

 

The Garden of Eden and The Heavenly Jerusalem are The Same Place, depending on whether you are looking backward or forward. 

 

A person touched by Loneliness is a holy person. 

 

He is caught in the development of Individuation. 

 

Whether it’s a development or a regression depends on what he does with it. 

 

Loneliness can destroy you, or it can fire you up for a Dante-like journey through Hell and Purgatory to find paradise. St. John of the Cross called this The Dark Night of the Soul.

 

The worst suffering I’ve ever experienced has been loneliness, the kind that feels as though it has no cure, that nothing can touch it. 

 

One day, at the midpoint in my life—a little like Dante—I got so exhausted from it that I went into my bedroom, lay face down on my bed, and said, “I’m not going to move until this is resolved.” 

 

I stayed a long time, and the loneliness did ease a little. 

 

Dante fell out of Hell, shimmied down the hairy leg of The Devil, went through The Centre of The World, and started up The Other Side, which was Purgatory. 

 

I felt better, but as soon as I got up and began to do anything, my loneliness returned. 

 

I made many round trips until gradually an indescribable quality began to suffuse my life, and loneliness loosened its grip. 

 

Nothing outside changed. The change was entirely inside.

 

Thomas Merton wrote a beautiful treatise on Solitude. 

 

He said that certain individuals are obliged to bear The Solitude of God. 

 

Solitude is Loneliness evolved to The Next Level of Reality.

 

He who is obliged to bear The Solitude of God should not be asked to do anything else; it’s such a difficult task. 

 

For monastics, Solitude was one of the early descriptions of God. 

 

If you can transform your Loneliness into Solitude, you’re one step away from the most precious of all experiences. 

 

This is the cure for Loneliness.

 

Excerpt from: "Inner Gold: Understanding Psychological Projection" by Arnie Kotler.

 

 

Shotgun!

The garden was blessed by the Gods of me and you

We headed West to find ourselves some truth, oh

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

We counted all our reasons, excuses that we made

We found ourselves some treasure, and threw it all away

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

When I dance alone, and the Suns's bleeding down

Blame it on me

When I lose control and the veil's overused

Blame it on me

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

Caught in the tide of blossom, caught in the carnival

Your confidence forgotten, and I see the gypsies run

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

When I dance alone, and the Suns's bleeding down

Blame it on me

When I lose control and the veil's overused

Blame it on me

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

When I dance alone, and the Suns's bleeding down

Blame it on me

When I lose control and the veil's overused

Blame it on me

When I dance alone, I know I'll go

Blame it on me oh

When I'll lose control, I know I'll go

Blame it on me oh

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

What you're waiting for?

Homegrown alligator, see you later

Gotta hit the road, gotta hit the road

The sun it changed in the atmosphere

Architecture unfamiliar 

I can get used to this

Time flies by in the yellow and green

Stick around and you'll see what I mean

There's a mountaintop that I'm dreaming of

If you need me you know were I'll be

I'll be riding shotgun underneath the hot sun

Feeling like a someone

I'll be riding shotgun underneath the hot sun

Feeling like a someone

The south of the equator, navigate it

Gotta hit the road, gotta hit the road

Deep-sea diving 'round the clock, bikini bottoms, lager tops

I could get used to this

Time flies by in the yellow and green

Stick around and you'll see what I mean

There's a mountaintop that I'm dreaming of

If you need me you know were I'll be

I'll be riding shotgun underneath the hot sun

Feeling like a someone

I'll be riding shotgun underneath the hot sun

Feeling like a someone

We got two in the front

Two in the back

Sailing along

And we don't look back

Time flies by in the yellow and green

Stick around and you'll see what I mean

There's a mountaintop that I'm dreaming of

If you need me you know were I'll be

I'll be riding shotgun underneath the hot sun

Feeling like a someone

I'll be riding shotgun underneath the hot sun

Feeling like a someone

I'll be riding shotgun underneath the hot sun

Feeling like a someone

I'll be riding shotgun underneath the hot sun

Feeling like a someone, a someone, a someone, someone

BreXit : We’re Not JUST Circling The Wagons

Archangel Michael, Protect us in BATTLE.

I don't know what will happen now — We've got some Difficult Days ahead. (Amen) 

But it really doesn't matter with me now — Because I've been to The Mountaintop. (Yeah) [Applause] 

And I don't mind. [Applause continues] 

Like anybody, I would like to live a loooong life, longevity — has its place. 

But I'm Not Concerned About That Now — 

I Just wanna do God's Will. (Yeah) 

And He's allowed me to go up to The Mountain. (Go ahead) 

And I've looked over. (Yes sir) 

And I've seeeeeeeen The Promised Land. (Go ahead) 

I May Not Get There w. You. (Go ahead) 

But I Want You to Know Tonight — (Yes)

That We, as a People, Will Get to The Promised Land

 [Applause] (Go ahead, Go ahead) 

And so, I'm so happy tonight; 

I'm Not Worried About anything; 

I'm Not Fearing any Man —

MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY — OF THE COMIN’ OF THE LORD — [Applause] 

Hope I Get Wise Before I Get Old

It is a Good Death.
You Just Run-along Home, now - That'll Do, Luke; That'll Do.

"Like anybody, 

I would like to lead

a loooong life, longevity - has it's place.

But I'm not concerned about that now.


I just wanna do God's Will.

And He has allowed me to go up,
To The Mountaintop.

And I've looked over -


And I've seeeeeeen 

The Promised Land.


I May Not Get There w. You.

But I just want you to know 
Right Now


That We as a People  
 would get to The Promised Land

And so I wanted you to know Right Now,
I'm so Happy Tonight -

I ain't fearin' anything,
I ain't fearin' Any Man.

MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY 
OF THE COMIN' OF THE LORD 





" One day we will have to stand before The God of History and we will talk in terms of things we’ve done. 

Yes, we will be able to say we built gargantuan bridges to span The Seas, we built gigantic buildings to kiss The Skies. 

Yes, we made our submarines to penetrate oceanic depths. 

We brought into being many other things with our scientific and technological power.

It seems that I can hear the God of history saying, 

"That was not enough! 

But I was hungry, 

and ye fed me not. 

I was naked, 

and ye clothed me not. 

I was devoid of a decent sanitary house to live in, 

and ye provided no shelter for me. 

And consequently, you cannot enter The Kingdom of Greatness. 

If ye do it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye do it unto me."

The Cognitive-Mental Gheto

 Freud:

Of course, there's the added difficulty, more ammunition for our enemies, that all of us here in Vienna, in our psychoanalytical circle, are Jews. 

 C.G. Jung

 I don't see what difference that makes. 

 Freud:

 That, if I may say so, is an exquisitely Protestant remark. 

When I left the hospital and moved out here... I was afraid it would take years... to build up a roster of patients, but... I'm already under siege. 

Anyway, I don't see why a little more work... won't make your dissertation eminently publishable. You think we'd be able to work on it together without...? It's always going to be something of a risk, us seeing one another. Yes. But I believe we have the character to be able to deal with the situation, don't you? I hope so. I somehow imagined you'd have found another admirer by now. No. You were the jewel of great price. Shall we say this time next Tuesday? And I'll start gently ripping you to shreds. Explain this analogy you make between the sex instinct and the death instinct. Professor Freud claims that... the sexual drive arises from a simple urge towards pleasure. If he's right, the question is why is this urge so often successfully repressed? You used to have a theory involving the impulse towards destruction... and self-destruction, losing oneself. Well, suppose we think of sexuality as fusion, losing oneself, as you say, but... losing oneself in the other, in other words, destroying one's own individuality. Wouldn't the ego, in self-defense, automatically resist that impulse? You mean for selfish not for social reasons? Yes. I'm saying, that perhaps true sexuality demands the destruction of the ego. In other words, the opposite of what Freud proposes. When I graduate, I've decided to leave Zurich. I have to. Why? You know why. It's true. I'm nothing but a.. philistine Swiss bourgeois... complacent coward. I want to leave everything... break away and disappear with you. Then comes the voice of the philistine. Where will you go? Vienna, maybe. Please don't go there. I must go wherever I need to feel free. Don't. You know your paper... led to one of the most stimulating discussions we've ever had... at the Psychoanalytic Society. Do you really think the sexual drive is a demonic and destructive force? Yes, at the same time as being a creative force, in the sense that... it can produce, out of the destruction of two individualities, a new being. The individual must always overcome resistance... because of the self-annihilating nature of the sexual act. Hm. I fought against the idea for some time, I suppose there must be some kind of... indissoluble link between sex and death. I don't think the relationship between the two... is quite the way you've portrayed it. I'm most grateful to you for animating the subject in such a stimulating way. The only slight shock was your introduction, at the very end of your paper, of the name of Christ. Are you... completely opposed to any kind of... religious dimension in our field? In general, I don't care if a man believes in Rama, Marx or Aphrodite, as long as he keeps it out of the consulting room. Is that what's at the bottom of your dispute with Dr. Jung? I have no dispute with Dr. Jung. I was simply mistaken about him. I thought he was going to be able to carry our work forward after I was gone. I didn't bargain for all that second-rate mysticism and self-aggrandizing shamanism. Nor did I realize he could be so brutal and sanctimonious. He's trying to find some way forward... so that we don't just have to tell our patients, "This is why you are the way you are. He wants to be able to say, "We can show you what it is you might want to become". Playing God, in other words. We have no right to do that. The world is as it is. Understanding and accepting that is the way to psychic health. What good can we do if our aim is simply to replace one delusion with another? Well, I agree with you. Hm. I've noticed that in the crucial areas of dispute between Dr. Jung and myself, you tend to favour me. I thought you had no dispute with him. Hm. You still love him. That's not why I'm pleading his cause. I... I... I just... feel that if you two don't find some way to co-exist, it will hold back the progress of psychoanalysis, perhaps indefinitely. Is there no way to avert a rupture? Correct scientific... relations will be maintained, of course. I'll be seeing him at the editorial meeting in Munich... in September and I shall be perfectly civil. To tell you the truth, what finished him for me was all that business about you. The lies, the ruthless behaviour. I was very shocked. I think he loved me. I'm afraid your idea of a mystical union with a blond Siegfried... was inevitably doomed. Put not your trust in Aryans. We're Jews, my dear Miss Spielrein, and Jews we will always be. Now, the real reason I invited you here this evening... was to ask if you'd be prepared to take on one or two of my patients? I was interested in what you said about monotheism... that it arose historically out of some kind of patricidal impulse. Yes. Akhnaton, who as far as we know, was the first... to put forth the bizarre notion that there was only one God. Also had his father's name erased and chiseled out of all public monuments. That's not strictly true. Not true? No. You mean, it was most probably a myth? No. I mean there were two perfectly straightforward reasons... for Akhnaton, or Amenhopis the IV as I prefer to call him, to excise his father's name from the cartouches. First... this was something traditionally done... by all new kings who didn't wish their father's name... to continue to be public currency. In much the same way as your article in the Yearbook, fails to mention my name? Your name is so well-known it hardly seemed necessary to mention it. Do go on. 

Secondly, Amenhopis only struck out the first half of his father's name, Amenhotep, because, like the first half of his own name, it was shared by Amon. 

One of the gods he was determined to eliminate. 

Hm. 

As simple as that? The explanation doesn't seem to me unduly simple. And do you think your man, whatever you call him, felt no hostility whatsoever toward his father? 

I have no means of proof, of course. For all I know, Amenhopis may have thought that his father's name familiar enough... and that now it might be time to make a name for himself. 

How sweet... it must be to die. 


"If I may say so, dear Professor, you make the mistake"... "of treating your friends like patients". "This enables you to reduce them to the level of children", "so that their only choice is to become obsequious nonentities"... "or bullying enforcers of the party line, while you sit on the mountaintop", "the infallible father-figure and nobody dares to pluck you by the beard and say", "Think about your behaviour and then decide which one of us is the neurotic". "I speak as a friend". 

 Hm. 

"Your letter cannot be answered.

Your claim, that I treat my friends like patients is self-evidently untrue

As to which of us is the neurotic, I thought we analysts were agreed... a little neurosis was nothing whatever to be ashamed of. 

But a man like you, who behaves quite abnormally... and then stands there shouting at the top of his voice... how normal he is, does give considerable cause for concern". 

For a long time now, our relationship has been hanging by a thread". 

And a thread, moreover, mostly consisting of past disappointments 

We have nothing to lose by cutting it.

You will be the best judge of what this moment means to you. 

"The rest is silence".

If I Had Sneezed

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?" 

And I was looking down writing, and I said, "Yes." And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, your drowned in your own blood -- that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had merely sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. 

I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what that letter said. 

But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply,

"Dear Dr. King,

I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School."

And she said,

"While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I'm a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."

And I want to say tonight -- I want to say tonight that I too am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream, and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in inter-state travel.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent.

If I had sneezed -- If I had sneezed I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great Movement there.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering.

I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me --. Now, it doesn't matter, now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

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!

And 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!!