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A SPECIAL WAY
TO PEACE AND JOY
There is
a way
to personal success and happiness.
1t
is not mystical. lt is not complicated. And it
real/y works!
As
A TEE -AGER
who usually tried
~
to act tough and unemo–
tional, l was brought to tears
one night in an unusual way. 1 shaU
never forget it.
It
was a gorgeous summer eve–
ning in the American mid-West.
1
walked thoughtfully through the
warm darkness, hearing the crickets
chirp, looking at an almost full
moon which illuminated the open
spaces belween the lrees with its
gentle light.
Harry's folks were gone, so 1 just
carne on around lo the sliding glass
door whicb opened out onto the pa–
tio. Suddenly, my musings were
halted as I realized thal the beau–
tiful music 1 had been hearing so
faintly before was coming from the
piano just inside lhe sliding door,
which was open.
There. his upturned face partially
bathed by the moonlight which
fil–
tered through the trees and into the
room, sa t Harry at the piano bench.
He was playing beautifully and
PLAIN TRUTH Februory 1973
by
Roderick
C.
Meredith
most fittingly in that quiet, lumi–
nescent scene . Beethoven's
"Moonlight Sonata." It was lhe
most memorable rendilion of lhal
piece that 1 had ever heard. For
Harry was completely blind.
Mistakes Exact Penalties
I
watched for a moment and my
eyes welled up wilh tears as Harry's
unseeing eyes stared al the very
moon to whose beauty this piece has
been dedicated. And
1
was forced to
realize that blind Harry - the fellow
we helped here and there around
scbool since he learned to read
braille. the boy whose alert and
in–
quiring mind literally hungered for
the chance 1 had to read, to see, to
leam - was born blind for a reason.
And common knowledge in the
town had it thal lhe reason was a
"místake" one of his parents made
before his conception.
Wbether we realize it or not , most
such mistakes involve taking "líber–
líes" with sorne kind of law. And so
Harry was boro blind. He was pay–
ing a penalty because someone else
thought he was "free" to break a
law - or. more likely, probably de–
nied lhal such a law even existed.
But that law existed all right, and
still does.
And the hundreds of times tha t
Harry was "down" emotionally, the
countless hours he brooded and suf–
fered , lhe times he poured out his.
heart to me and others, the many,
many times he got drunk lo "forget"
- all these bear ample testimony to
those who are willing to understand
lhat a law was broken and a terrible
penalty was incurred.
Harry koows. He paid much of
that penalty - along with millions
o f others of whom we shall later
learn.
The Whole World Suffers
Not only are the individual suf–
ferings of those like Harry increas–
ing, but intelligent roen everywhere
know lhal they are living under the
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