[Oe List ...] I like the way he said that

[KarenBueno at aol.com]

This book, written in 2000, was Oprah's book of the month.
 
The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier  P. 196ff.
 
I believe that there’s a very organic, immeasurable consciousness of which we’
re a part.  I believe that this consciousness is a force so powerful that I’m 
incapable of comprehending its power through the puny instrument of my human 
mind.  And yet I believe that this consciousness is so unimaginably calibrated 
in its sensitivity that not one leaf falls in the deepest of forests on the 
darkest of nights unnoticed.
 
No, give the immensity of this immeasurable power that I’m talking about, and 
given its pervasiveness through the universe (extending from distant galaxies 
to the tip of my nose), I choose not to engage in what I consider to be the 
useless effort of giving it a name, and by naming it, suggesting that I in any 
way understand it, though I’m enriched by the language and imagery of both 
traditional Christianity and old island culture.  Many of my fellow human beings 
do give it a name, and do purport to understand it in a more precise way than 
I would ever attempt.  I just give it respect, and I think of it as living in 
me as well as everywhere else.
 
The grand consciousness I perceive allows me great breadth and scope of 
choices, none of which are correct or incorrect except on the basis of my own 
perception.  This means that the responsibility for me rests with me.
 
I have obligations to be in service to this me, to shape it, to encourage its 
growth, to nurture it toward becoming a better and better me day by day, to 
be conversant with all its good qualities, such as they are, and to be aware of 
all its bad qualities, such as they are.  When the living space between the 
two sets of qualities becomes so uncomfortable that choices have to be made, I 
try to come down on the side of what I feel is right.
 
I’ll say that I believe in God, if you press me to the wall, but then I’m 
going to come right back at you and give you the above definition of God.  You 
follow?  And that’s the only definition of God that I’ll defend, because I don’
t think it’s possible for me to embrace any other.

*****
Copied without permission by Karen Bueno
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