PAGE 2 — Smoke Signals, Monday, September 27, 1976
j Literary
Musings
: By PROF. ROBERT G. MULDER
All my life I’ve heard that the best things
come in small packages. This statement
could be simply an old saying or some great
writer may have actually coined it. We all
know, however, that it isn’t always true.
But, then igain, sometimes the
statement may ,>e very true. I have just
finished reading a pleasingly small
paperback of fewer than a hundred pages
which ought to be required reading for the
masses. This is one of the few books which I
have found fascinating enough to complete
in one sitting.
The book is titled How To Be Your Own
Best Friend (by Mildred Newman and
Bernard Berkowitz. New York: Random
House, Inc., 1974, 96 pp., $1.50) and is in
troduced by three pages of ultra-glowing
sketch reviews. One reading of the small
volumn, however, will support the truth in
these reviews which range from the New
York Times to the Houston Chronicle, from
Neil Simon to Anthony Perkins.
This guaranteed-to-help-you book is a
“kind of psychiatric pep talk . . . directed
at people who hate or despise themselves.”
To get an individual on friendly terms with
himself seems to be the major purpose of
this writing, and the experienced
psychoanalysts, a husband-wife team,
speak in a clear, nontechnical language.
Written as an unhurried dialogue bet
ween patient and analyst, the study begins
with a consideration of what constitutes
real happiness: How can one master the art
of genuine, lasting happiness? (“We are
responsible for our own good time.”) How
am I keeping happiness for myself? (“You
must be able to see the ways you’re pulling
yourself down and decide that this isn’t
what you want to do.”) How can I be a free
person? (“You are free when you accept
the responsibility for your choices.”) Of
course, the explanations are much more
thorough and interestingly presented than
indicated here.
This very absorbing dialogue progresses
to a practical, sensible approach to change
and how this should be encountered to the
best advantage. A great deal is said about
self-acceptance, and emphasis is placed
upon worthy motivation and deter
mination. Some helpful advice is given to
the aspiring individual who seeks to
become what he feels he’s capable of
achieving.
The various stumbling blocks along the
road of life are noticed by these
psychologists and ways to make them
stepping stones are considered. “The
French philosopher Rousseau made a
statement ‘Man is born free, but
everywhere he is in chains.’ It is closer to
the truth to say, ‘Man is born in chains, but
each of us has the potential to be free.’ Too
often people cling to their chains even after
they’ve outgrown them.”
As would be expected, these writers
devote a part of their study to childhood
and its continuing effect u^n the in
dividual. “Embrace the child in you,” the
reader is told. “You have to get on familiar
terms with yourself; make friends with
yourself. It gives such a reserve of strength
to call on.”
The reader may quite easily see the
reasons for such popularity afforded this
volume. Here is a book which tells one that
he isn’t such a bad person after all, that he
has the potentiality to master worthwhile
goals and to be happy while making ac
complishments.
When Jesus said: “Love thy neighbor AS
thyself,” He was assuming that the in
dividual maintained love of himself as a
person. This seems to be the underlying
thought behind How To Be Your Own Best
Friend.
The concluding part of this conversation
seems to be noteworthy: “If we can learn to
love and nurture ourselves, we will find our
own selves richer than we ever imagined.
We will still be beset by real problems and
suffer real defeats. Life is not a picnic — or
a rose garden. The world is not run for our
benefit. There is no escaping the human
condition, which involves pain and dif
ficulty and loss. But we can bring
everything we have to bear on the
challenges life presents and make the very
most of what it offers us. If we liberate
ourselves from our fantasies and learn
where our real resources lie, a whole world
is waiting to be explored.”
A reading of this book is guaranteed to do
something for your ego. One must surely
come away from these pages with a greater
appreciation of himseLf, a knowledge that
he is a really fine person indeed. Of course,
I’ve already known this fact for many
years anyway.
Entertainers
Elegy for a Poet
By James R. Gray
The world has lost a major poet, and I am so sad I want to
discuss it with someone. Daniel Whitehead Hicky, the great
Georgia nature poet, is dead. It happened in July, but I just got
the news. A poet friend who lives in Atlanta, Mr. Hicky’s
hometown, informed me in a letter.
When I was a teen-ager, back in the twenties, the name
Daniel Whitehead Hicky was known to everyone who read
contemporary poetry. His work was in just about every
magazine that published poetry. Here is a partial list of those
magazines: Harper’s Magazine, The American Mercury,
Scribner’s Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post,
Cosmopolitan, .McCall’s Ladies’ Home Journal, Good,
Housekeeping.
Mr. Hicky was columnist of the Atlanta Constitution for
eight years, and he won the Poetry Society of America’s first
prize in 1931. But his kind of poetry, so he often said, went out
of style in the early fifties, and Daniel Hicky, known as Jack to
close friends, stopped writing almost altogether. He didn’t like
what he called “modern stuff,” and refused to write it. His
poems contained rhythm and rhyme, and elements of fragile
beauty, and if editors no longer wanted that sort of thing, then
he wouldn’t write at all. Anyway, he was busy with a civil
service career in Washington with the U. S. D. A.
Mr. Hicky retired in 1971 and went back to live in Atlanta. By
this time, the pendulum of public taste was swinging back to
the sort of poetry he wrote. Friends kept urging him to write
more poems. In other years, he had published five books of
poetry, but now these were all out of print, veritable collectors’
items. He was besieged with requests to bring out another
book.
He agreed to do so, at first planning to title the book “The
Sound Of Reddening Leaves.” I had lost track of Mr. Hicky for
years. But a friend wrote me about the proposed new book. I
asked Mr. Hicky about it, and he was kind enough to write
back and tell me I would be notified when the book was
available. That was in 1973.
In the fall of 1975,1 got a letter from the Cherokee Publishing
Company of Civinton, Georgia telling me the book was
available. However, I wrote directly to Mr. Hickey. I wanted
an autographed copy. Instead of telling me to jump in a lake,
as he should have, he sent my autographed copy. The final title
was simply: POEMS OF DANIEL WHITEHEAD HICKY. I
am looking at the book now, and my eyes are blurred with
tears.
Many of Mr. Hicky’s poems are classics, famous the world
over. Most poetry lovers are familiar with “Never The
Nightingale” and his excellent sonnets, and so on. But perhaps
his most famous poem is the following.
I Have A Need of Gulls
I have a need of gulls again and their flying
Over the foam-white acres of the sea
Where the sunrise drifts like a fleet of ships afire,
And the dark like eternity.
I have a need for the yellow sea oat’s music
And the single salty note
Curled in the palm of a shell as pale as the sigh
In a sandpiper’s throat.
Too long the city has housed me and fed me its fare,
Too long I have run with the crowd;
I have a need to be free again like the gulls.
To bathe my face in the cool white peace of a cloud.
I have a need to lie at length on the sands.
To unshoulder my burdens out where the seagulls cry,
And to all of my heart’s dark questions unanswered
Hear the white answers they write in the sky.
Grady Nutt, Ed Seabough Speakers
Grady Nutt and Ed Seabough,
both popular Baptist en
tertainers, will be the featured
speakers at the Baptist State
Convention, Ridgecrest Con
ference Onter, October 1-3.
Nutt, a Christian entertainer
from Louisville, will develop the
conference theme in his unique,
humorous-but-serious manner.
He will lead the student par
ticipants in discussions on
relationships to God and other
people. Campus ministers and
diurch staff leaders will provide
an opportunity for follow-up
discussions on a more personal
level.
Seabough, a religious song
writer and associate of the Home
Mission Board, will be the
worship leader for the weekend
meeting. He will also coordinate
a student missions presentation
Ml the highlights of the 1976
student summer mission ac
tivities.
A special feature of the Con
vention wiU be “Nutts to You,” a
music and humor presentation by
Grady Nutt and wife Eleanor.
The Appalachian State BSU
will present the drama, “Steams
and Company,” a musical on the
early Baptist movement in Nortii
Carolina and the Southeast.
In addition, the students will
meet in business sessions to
Complaints Viewed
adopt a summer mission budget
for 1977 and elect a student
representative to the Council on
Cliristian Life and Public Affairs.
Roberta Farr, state BSU
president from A&T State, will
reside over the sessions.
The annual fall convention,
sponsored by the Campus
Ministry Department, is open to
all college students, not just those
involved in local BSU
organizations.
Cost of the weekend for Chowan
students will be $13.50 (includes
transportation, two nights
lodging, and five meals). For
further information or reser
vations, contact Cilhaplain Taylor,
RIGHT AWAY.
The Editor
A lot of students wonder why
they have to pay for movies and
dances by the SGA when there is
a Student Activities fee included
in the tutition. The student ac
tivities fee is used for other things
besides SGA functions. How
many times can you go see a good
movie for fifty cents? How many
dances can you go to for fifty
cents? This money is being put to
use. You complain about Uie
prices of movies on campus but a
lot of you are willing to pay $2.50
to $3.50 to see the same movie in a
theatre and the same with dances
and concerts.
Without the income of these
movies and dances there could be
no Spring concert that this town
and college will long remember.
I, myself, am willing to pay the
fifty cents. If there can be a
really good band on campus in
April, things will be equal if not
better balanced. The Spring
concert will be well worth the
effort if everyone helps do their
part.
But the Spring concert is not
Poor Are Here To Stay; Why
GERONIMO — There's nothing like a nice refreshing dip
after classes. (Photo by Will McIntyre)
Nancy Sullivan
Marianne Jackson
.. Editor
. Advisor
HERBERT Gans has given the
following reasons why we will
always have poverty:
1) The existence of poverty
insures that society’s “dirty
work” will be done. For this
reason welfare payments have
been cut off in some states in the
summer when the poor are
needed to work in the fields.
2) The poor subsidize economic
l>enefits for the affluent by
working for lower wages, and by
paying a higher percent of their
income in property and sales
taxes.
3) Poverty creates a number of
jobe to “serve” the poor, e.g.
policemen, penologists, welfare
workers, doctors and lawyers.
4) The poor buy goods that
others do not want such as day
old bread, used cars and clothing.
5) The poor can be identifi^
and puni^ed to ufdiold the
legitimacy of conventional
norms, although there is
evidence that the poor are as law-
abiding as others.
6) The poor serve a function
when culture created by them is
adopted by the more affluent, for
example negro spirituals,
countiV music and prostitution.
7) The poor keep the
aristocracy busy with their
“charity” and pro^de them with
opportunities to demonstrate
their “superiority”.
8) Being powerless the poor
can be made to absorb the costs
M
A BATTLE TO THE END — Charles Pope (40) of Baltimore fights with an unidentified
Chowan College player for possession of the football. Pope not only lost the fight but he
was also injured on the play. Pope was taken to the hospital but later released with minor
neck injuries. (Photo by Will McIntyre)
the only thing the SGA needs the
money for. These movies need to
be paid for and the bands that
have to be paid for their services.
If we want a good band for
Homecoming and Spring Festival
or a great movie on campus,
some sacrifices must be made.
I know a few people who are
willing to support the SGA. Those
d you who gripe about having to
pay for these SGA events, don’t
go but if you want a super Spring
(Concert and other activities,
STOP complaining and start
doing.
of growth in society, for example
the back breaking work of
building railroads and cities,
picking crops and serving as foot
soldiers in war.
9) The poor facilitate the
American political process.
Since they vote less often the
Republicans feel free to ignore
ttiem which leaves a captive
constituency for the Democrats.
10) An economy based upon
“free enterprise” requires a
deprived population which is
allegedly unwilling to work or is
considered inferior which
reduces the pressure on society to
eliminate poverty.
Pessimist’s moral; Why fight
the system? Somebody has to be
poor. It might as well be you!
SHARING IN THE RAIN — Two Chowan coeds fights the elements together. The torrentia
rains of last week made an umbrella a necessity. (Photo by Will McIntyre)