Uriah J. Fields
1 min ·

My Soul Song

Excerpt
Introduction

My Soul Song is mostly about my work
and life during the last half of the incredible
Twentieth Century. Civil rights and my pursuit
of justice and peace have been major themes
of my existential quest for meaning that are at
the core of my thought and philosophy that
embody seven principles, namely: responsibility,
love, creativeness, freedom, self-transcendence,
commitment and enjoyment; and two methods,
dynamic insistence and altruistic pragmatism.
By this I mean I am an exponent of and adhere
to the Mutuality philosophy.
My work is rooted in and reflects the
Mutuality philosophy which is the concept of
man as a responsible being, with his own
happiness as both the practical and ultimate
purpose of his life, with creative expression as
his noblest activity, with empathy for others,
and love as his only absolute. (Love is the good
we do and it alone when well served is always
good and right in every situation.)

My Soul Song consists of Book One and
Book Two.
Book One is a collection of of my personal
work; lyrics, prose poems, prayers, thirty-one
letters to a daily newspaper editor, essays and
articles that form a manifesto of my life works
It presents one-hundred-and-one songs that I
sing, songs of sorrow, fight songs, but mostly
songs of joy and celebration of life; prayers of
thanksgiving, intercession and request for
guidance offered to God. Lead sheet music,
not included in this book, is available and can
be purchased directly from the composer.

Lifetime of Love Songs
I'll sing my songs wherever I go
and express love to all who extend a listen ear
and kind heart and give me encouragement to
keep on singing my songs: Sometimes folk join
me and together we make sweet music
that makes glad our hearts and the expressions
we see on the faces of other people tell us to
keep on singing and making sweet music which
is the one language understood by all.
Some people who listen to me sing,
more often during my octogenarian years
than before with glee express their appreciation
and then ask me, “Will your songs remain?”
I say to them, “My songs are love songs
and love has no end but I do not know
if my song will survive my mortal existence,
but this I know when I sang in the eternal now
often I experienced Heaven on Earth.
Book One also contains letters to a
newspaper editor that include “Advice to
Obama: Panic or Practice Equanimity” and
“Cut Confederacy from Public Square,”:
essays that include “The Purpose of Life”
and “The Cosmic Source,” and seven articles
that include “The Four Greatest Presidents
from a Black Perspective” and “Gung Ho
America.”:These essays and articles focus
on issues and conditions involving human
relationships and my advocacy for change
that promotes the practice of community and
the creation of a harmonious society.
Book Two consists of stories about events
I have experienced that significantly impacted
Americans and advanced America toward
achieving a “more perfect union.” One of these
stories focuses on. the first day of the
Montgomery Bus Boycott which began four
days after the arrest of Rosa Parks for having
refused to give her bus seat to a white person.
This was also the day of Parks' t trial. Two other
important developments took place on that day:
The Montgomery Improvement Association
(MIA.) was founded and Martin Luther King,
Jr., was elected president and this author, Uriah
J. Fields, was elected secretary of the new
organization. It was under the auspices of the
MIA that the bus boycott was provided with
structure and conducted
. Another significant thing to happen on the
first day of the bus boycott was the convening
and gathering of nearly 4,000 people at and
around the Holt Street Baptist Church who
unanimously voted to continue the bus boycott
until the Montgomery city officials respond
positively to the grievances of Africian
American bus riders. What a day!
Other stories, include the telling of my
eyewitness account of The Rodney King Riot
in Los Angeles that erupted followed an all-
white Jury's acquittal of policemen who had
savagely and brutally beaten Rodney King, as
millions throughout the world watched the video
that displayed the incident; chronicle of the
400-year experience of African Americans in
America that includes 244 years of slavery and
nearly 100 years of legal, Government approved
segregation, lynching and disfranchisement
endured by African Americans in America; my
fight as a plaintiff and as a defendant in the courts
for justice; my ecological relationship with nature
and a sermon titled, “Love is the Greatest,” - the
greatest power in the Universe - that I first
delivered at the Bell Street Baptist Church where
I was the pastor, during the the bus boycott, and
later at the First Baptist Church in Saskatoon in
Canada during the summer that I was a student
at the AMS School of Alcohol and Narcotic
Education at the University of Saskatchewan,
Canada.
My Soul Song is best read in small chunks,
perhaps before eating breakfast or going to bed,
or on the bus, train or airplane; practically
anywhere when you can focus on what you are
reading. It can be nourishment for the soul, used
as a spiritual tonic or as a guide to life. In
addition to all the information and insights that
can be ascertained from reading this book, it
produces serendipity, surprises by joy. There are
multiple introductions that will enable the reader
to be aware of what follows.
Ideally this book shouldn't be read like
a novel or a continuous work. Although in the
“Contents” I have listed in sequence the titles of
these writings, there's no need to read the work in
the order I've given. You may choose the title that
best appeals to you at the moment. However, you
are likely to discover that less appealing titles can
be rewarding too. The point is, you can dive in
anywhere just as many people do when reading
the Bible, and appreciate Uriah J. Fields' messages.
I enjoin you to feast upon the offering..
A You and Me Celebration
This is a you and me celebration, for you and me,
by you and for you and me.
Let us be here now, experience what is, create by
choice what we want, and relate fully with each
other. Let your presence be evident.
Real presence is real love, the sharing of self
with the other, the giving of ourselves completely.
We celebrate life. So in pain or in joy there is
meaning. We are glad we, we rejoice, life is
delectable.
In celebration our deepest feelings are
revealed, and whether there is pain or joy we are
enraptured as we experience ourselves and our
brothers and our sisters. They look at us, they\
listen to us, they understand us; they care deeply
about us.
In celebration we strip naked. We lay bare
soul to soul. We embrace each other and the
universe in the eternal now.
We create a human chain of friendship in which
no link is any weaker than its strongest link.