Listen for the Sound of the Genuine; It Is Flowing Through You

“There is something in every one of you that waits, listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself and if you cannot hear it, you will never find whatever it is for which you are searching and if you hear it and then do not follow it, it was better that you had never been born.” — Howard Thurman, 1980 Commencement, Spelman College

Just imagine yourself sitting amongst the graduation class of 1980 when Howard Thurman spoke those words at your commencement.

Thurman was an author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and one of the quiet giants of the civil rights movement. Most notably, in 1953 he became the dean of Marsh Chapel, the first black dean at the mostly white Boston University where he mentored, among others, Martin Luther King, Jr.

He knew something about finding his genuine self.

It is a self examination that requires understanding so many aspects of who you are — physically, emotionally, spiritually, and experientially — and sorting through all the voices that end up inside of us.

This includes acceptance of the principle made popular by J. B. S. Haldane, a controversial scientist who specialized in physiology, genetics, mathematics, and evolutionary biology. He proffered that animals and the human species are created in a…