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A
Special
Way
to
PEACE
and
OY
There is a way to personal success and
happiness. lt is not mystical. It
is not complicated. And it really works!
s a teenager who usual–
ly tried to act tough
and unemotional, I
was brought to tears
one night in an un–
usua l way. l shall
never forget it.
It was a gorgeous summer evening
in the American Midwest. I walked
thoughtfully through the warm dark–
ness, hearing the crickets chirp, look–
ing atan almost full moon which illu–
minated with its gentle light the open
spaces between the trees.
Harry's folks were gone, so I just
carne on around to the sliding glass
door which opened out onto the patio.
Suddenly, my musings were halted as
I realized that the beautiful music 1
had been hearing so faintly before
was coming from the piano just in–
side the sliding door, which was
open.
T here, his upturned face partially
batbed by the moonlight wh ich fil -
14
by
Roderick C. Meredith
tered through the trees and into the
room, sat Harry at the piano bench.
He was playing beautifully and most
fittingly, in that quiet , luminescent
scene, Beethoven's
Moonlight Sona–
ta.
It
was the most memorable rendí–
tion of tha t piece that l had ever
heard. For Harry was completely
blind.
Mlstakes Exact Penalties
1 watched for a moment and my eyes
welled up with tears as Harry's un–
seeing eyes stared toward the very
moon to whose beauty this piece had
been dedicated. And 1 was forced to
realize that blind Harry-the fellow
we helped here and there around
school , the boy whose alert and in–
quiring mind literally hungered for
the chance 1 had to read, to see, to
learn-was born blind for a reason.
And common knowledge in the town
had it that the reason was a ' 'mis–
take" one of his parents made before
his conception.
Whether we realize it or not, most
such mistakes involve taking "liber–
ties" with sorne kind of law. And so
Harry was born bl ind. He was paying
a penalty because someone else felt
"free" to break a law-or, more like–
ly, probably denied that such a law
even existed.
But that law existed all right, and
sti ll does.
And the hundreds of times that
Harry was "down" emotionally, the
countless hours he brooded and suf–
fered, the times he poured out his
heart to me and others, the many,
many times he got drunk to "for–
get"-all these bear ample testimony
to those who are willing to under–
stand that a law was broken and a
terrible penalty was incurred.
Harry knows. He paid much of
that penalty-along with millions of
others of whom we shall later learn.
The Whole World Suffers
Not only a re the individual sufferings
of those like Harry increasing, but in–
telligent men everywhere know that
The
PLAIN TRUTH March 1979