'To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life!'

Born to Fly – Part 2

Into our second-part ruminations on ‘born to fly’, shall we, dear and gentle reader, have a delightful little peek, yet again, into Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk, which is, till date, considered a cornerstone of African American literature! And well, we’ve already done The Souls of Black Folk HERE, a year ago, albeit on a different note!

Chapter FIVE to this book is so lovely. It's titled, ‘Of the Wings of Atlanta’, where Du Bois talks about the vision, the mission, the scope and the hope ahead for Atlanta University, which, I guess, should be a real inspiration and an ideal for all of us, students and teachers at Schools, Colleges and Universities across the world, today!

Du Bois has noble precepts for the schools and universities of today! He resembles a Bertrand Russell or a J Krishnamurti at that!

Atlanta University, according to Du Bois, was doing a huge injustice and a great disservice to society at large, and to the South in particular, as it was training young minds to believe that wealth and materialism were high-priority for success in life!

Du Bois feels that, Universities sadly train the students in skills and in theory! But quite unfortunately, they fail abysmally in the most important aspect – to make a student a human, who’s humane enough!

And that’s when he says Atlanta can develop wings and fly high!

And once Atlanta is all geared up to fly, Du Bois now calls upon the students of Atlanta, to become cultural bearers of  ‘knowledge’ in the world in order to eliminate ignorance and encourage students [such as Josie] to remain students, committed to their own roles as cultural bearers.

What a lovely thought!! What a lofty idea!!! Ain't it? :-)

James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man is equally inspiring in this regard!

The protagonist of this novel, as a result of his lovely sessions of readings and reflections, one fine day ie awakened to discover his true calling - his artistic vocation! 

Now, having become aware of the power of ideas and the power of the intellect in transforming lives, he finds for himself that society’s norms are so stifling and stilted beyond redemption! (Akin to Du Bois’s grievance!) The political, religious and social planes were literally crumbling right in front of his eyes!

Added, he finds these burdens act as weaves and traps that devalue the life of ideas, intellect and the imagination. His critique of the educational institutions of his time is pungent! He calls them ‘calcified institutions’!

That’s when he longs to escape from these traps that burden his pretty little wings!

‘I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can…’

And Art ably provides him with his much-longed-for wings! - The wings of imagination and creative freedom!

And that helps him draft his beautiful manifesto that’s now become so immortal!

To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life!

There he feels, lies the purpose of his life! There he feels, lies his calling!

It would sure take months to ponder over the blessed import of line, you bet!

Especially the phrase, ‘to recreate life out of life’!!!

To be continued…

image: penguinrandomhousedotcom