What are you doing for the cause? Not for yourself. For all. Not to keep
yourself going. To keep the race going. What are you doing for to-morrow
that you didn't do yesterday for to-day? I dont say for what cause. I
say for any cause. I dont ask you what you are doing with tasks I might
set you. I ask what you are doing with tasks that you yourself set. I
know what you do in eating and working at your trade and sleeping at
night. You do that in order not to die. Everybody does that. I ask you
what you are doing in order to live. I know what you say. I read what
you write. I have heard your promises. But this is not enough. This
hardly tells me what I want to learn. I know what you do with what you
have to do. I want to know what you do with what you dont have to do. I
can see how your pay may make you think. I want to know how you make
your pay think. In short, I know what you do as a slave. What I want to
find out is what you do as a master. Did I say master? Yes. Master of
yourself. I never feel like accusing anybody. Like sitting in judgment
on anybody. Down in my heart I acknowledge the last compassion. Rather
anything than that I should forget your priority. Every man somehow
belongs first to himself. Do I say that? Yes. Then I say something more.
He also belongs first to the race. He stands for personality. There he's
for himself. He stands for service and progress. There he stands for the
race. I cant interpret his moods or his impulses. I can guess them. But
their interior purport is beyond the reach of my vision. That is why I
ask: What are you doing for the cause? And that is why I say: I shall
not say what cause. The cause has done everything for you. What are you
doing for it? In all the past it has been doing something for you. Now
you have come. You have inherited its accumulations. What are you doing
for it? I hear you say you dont see what you've got to be thankful for.
I dont charge you with ingratitude. I only ask whether you are grateful.
I dont even say you should do anything for the cause. I only remind you
of what the cause has done for you. I dont ask you whether you have done
your duty. I only ask you whether you feel that you have a duty. I'm not
presenting a bill to you. I only ask whether you owe a bill. The cause
has run an account with you. Do you run an account with the cause? Again
you ask: What cause? And again I say: I wont name the cause. That which
is the holy of holies to you. That is your cause. That which you say
must come before what you put into your belly and on your back. That is
your cause. That which demands sacrifice. That which insists upon its
initial sanctity. That which persuades you more than anything else. That
is the cause. I dont suggest the cause to you. You suggest it to me.
Therefore I have the right to ask you that question which your own
confession leads up to. You dont have to answer to me for it. You have
to answer to your life for it. There's no appeal from the cause. It's
the last court. It says the closing word. What can you say when you have
defaulted? When you have done nothing for the cause? When you have
simply existed and not lived? No man owes anything to a world to which
he cant feel related. If you are an alien. If you are a cosmic vagrant.
If you are lost. If you think of yourself as debris. Then you are not
responsible. Then I dont wonder that you deny your heritage. But if in
any rapt moment of inspiration you but once catch the face between the
clouds you are from that time the servant of the eternal. Then there's
no excuse for pettifogging. Then you can no longer disavow your
responsibility. What are you doing for the cause? For the beyond? For
the next step? Are you giving up anything for it? Or are you asking it
to give up something for you? Do you pray to it for favors? Do you want
cash down? Or are you willing your grandchildren should collect? Do you
sell the cause like you sell goods? And if it's profitable do you bless
it? And if it's profitless do you curse it? When I ask: What have you
done for the cause? I dont refer to anything that you've had visible pay
for. I refer to something that there'll never be any visible pay for.
The cause is always in the darkness ahead. It's always the path
unbroken. It's always the rough of fate. It's always the veil. Always
the curtain. Always the shrouding mystery. Do you serve it for pay or
work for it with love? Do you want to get life from it or do you give
life to get it? One man says God. Another man says Cause. Any name might
be any other name so it means the same thing. When I see what you do or
dont do I know whether you are only a boarder on the earth or whether
the earth is your home. I know whether you are a brother among comrades
or a chance acquaintance among enemies. What are you doing for the
cause?
You are doing nothing for the cause. You are making a living. But you
are not making life. You are personal. You have not surcharged yourself
with the general inspirations. Your motive is profit not service. You
want to get ahead no matter how. You dont want to stay behind no matter
why. Let anybody suffer. You mean to rejoice. You dont make way for the
world. The world makes way for you. Service is not master. Profit is
master. Downing someone else. Making good because someone else makes
bad. That is your code. Staying alive no matter who goes dead. Sponging
on life. Loafing on others. Taking anything you can any way you can get
it. Accepting none of the odium of the cause. Shrinking from anathema.
Avoiding unpopular opinions. Letting anyone do the work of progress. You
doing nothing. That's the code. Others queer themselves for an idea. Do
you? Anything but that. You pat them on the back. But you sneak the
price. You encourage them to go on. But you dont go on with them. You
scab on the revolution. They put up their lives. You put up nothing.
They die that you may live. You live that they may die. It's bad enough
to scab on the body. But it's infinitely worse to scab on the soul. You
are strike breakers. You undersell. Just as you undertalk. Just as you
underspend. Just as you underact. You hear the cause defamed and say
nothing. When the battle is on you are nowhere to be found. You dont
even carry water. You scab on your brother. You scab on your age. You
are the revolutionist gone to wood. There's no flower on your stem. You
let the others do the fighting. But you claim your share of the spoils.
You say: These theories will be all right some time. But that some time
will never be your time. My ears know your voice. I can tell when you
are around though you say nothing. Little as you know it, I follow you
through all the intricacies of your psychic retreats. Do you think you
can cover your tracks? Right or left, up or down, in or out, across or
around: wherever you go I tally you. Every step you take is within my
horizon. Do you resent my inevitable attendance? You say: I mean the
same thing you do. And you say: I am with you, only not so fast. You
say: You can count on me, too, but not too soon. You say: You can depend
upon my good will, but not too far. You've always some reason for
holding back. Some reason for not putting up money or service. Some
reason for withholding your confession. Somebody is always too violent
for you. Too extreme. Too exacting. Too inevitable. You want at the same
time to be and not to be. You let other men queer themselves for you.
You see them lose their reputations. You know they put their livings in
the scale for the cause. But you dont raise a finger to help them. You
hug your poor life as if it was rich. You husband your prostituted
treasure as if it was righteous. You let them work for all while you
work for yourself. You are the master scab. You are the scab left over
after all the other scabs have been beaten. And you not only scab on
your contemporaries. You scab on your grandchildren. You scab on the
future. You are sold out. You are pinkertoned. You have betrayed the
crowd. You are one thing when you think and another thing when you live.
You are one thing in what the world knows you for and another thing in
what you know yourself for. You are the shot from the rear. Our enemies
challenge us face to face. But you knife us in the dark. You are the
margin of faithless revolution. You are the interior force which flings
us into the clutches of reaction. I meet you every day I live. You pat
me on the back. You congratulate me. You do everything but avow me. You
are half a revolutionist minus a whole revolutionist. You dont scab the
labor market. You scab civilization. You scab the army on the march. You
create the panic of battle. You put the poison in the soup. You take all
and give nothing. You beg what you cant borrow. You borrow what you dont
want to steal. You steal what you dont mean to work for. You are the
scab of the revolution. You do nothing for the cause.
What are you doing for the cause? You do everything for the cause. You
work for the cause as the sun sheds light. You dont hunt places in which
to hide yourself away. You hunt the open and there face the world. You
dont wait to hear someone else say the word first. You say it. You dont
ask anybody to try the water to see if it's cold. You try it. And you
dont care if it is cold. You're as ready to spend your last as your
first cent. Some people are always wondering what other people will give
them. Some people are always wondering what they'll give other people.
But the lover dont argue about himself. He loves. Nor do givers argue
about themselves. They give. They are niagaras of benefaction. They dont
know it themselves. They have to be reminded of it. Nothing so surprises
a great man as the idea that he amounts to anything. Nothing so startles
the generous man as the idea that he is liberal. Nothing seems so
impossible to the hero as the idea that he is courageous. My heart has
no shall I or shall I not. I am not allowed to play any yes and no game
with myself. Listen to what I say. Down in me where I'm deepest there's
no hissing snake's-nest of alternatives. Run your knives clear through
me and I wouldn't do but the one thing. Every drop of my blood flows the
one way. Down over that steep cliff goes all my love, which is all my
life. I never spend a minute trying to find out what my duty is. There
is no duty. I'm just driven. There is no duty. I just keep on. When I
say cause I say sun and stars and earth and air and food. I say love and
those I love. I say that which makes life and is made by life. If I
hesitated an instant there would be no cause again. There would be only
empty space and hourless time. If I drew back one inch order would
revert to chaos. That which is not worth all is worth nothing. If I said
I'll see I'd be lost. If the tides said they'd see. If the storm said
it'd see. If yesterday said to to-morrow that it'd see. If birth said to
being born that it'd see. If dying said to death it'd see. If Etna's
fires said they'd see. If the ices of the north said they'd see. If a
fragment of an atom said it'd see. It'd be the same as if I'd say I'll
see when my name is called. If I left it to my purse to see. If I left
it to my properties to see. If I left it to my prospects or my
privileges to see. Then I'd not see at all. I'd be stone blind. If I
said that the cry of the scab is the voice of God. If I said that the
chorus of the dollars is the psalm of paradise. If I said that the
prayer of apology is the savior of souls. Then I'd not hear at all. I'd
be stone deaf. What are you doing for the cause? Do I want you to be a
fool for the cause? Yes. That's the only way you can be wise for
yourself. Do I want you to give up facts for dreams? Yes. That's the
only way you can turn dreams into facts. Do I want you to give
everything to the poor? Yes. That's the only way you can become rich to
the crowd. I dont want you to put your hand into your pocket and take it
out empty. I dont want you to put thought into your brain and take it
out empty. I dont want you to put love into your heart and take it out
empty. I don't want you to say to the cause: I'll think it out over
night. I dont want you to say: I may help some but dont expect too much
of me. I dont want you to say: I'll ask my wife or my husband or my
father or my mother or somebody. I dont even want you to ask your own
spirit. I want you to act. I want you to answer before the question is
put. I want you to spring before the challenge is issued. I want you to
warm up before the fire is lit. Do I want you to go out cold nights when
you might stay home and be comfortable? Yes. More than that. Do I want
you to take your fortune in your hands and go do something impossible?
Yes. More than that. Do I want you to choose misery maybe in place of
joy? Yes. More than that. Do I want you to stake your life on the issue?
Yes. More than that. I want you to do more than all that. I want you to
do more than debate and quarrel and wonder and waver even if you decide
right in the end. I want you to go on as if you had nothing to do with
proceeding: I want you to surrender as if you had nothing to do with
yielding. I dont want you to wait till you are called. I want you to
call. Whenever anything goes short: I want you to step into the gap. I
dont want you to ask: How can I? I want you to say: I couldn't do
anything else. What are you doing for the cause?
They talk about the rock of ages: there is no rock of ages: there
are only the people:
If I build on the people I build true for always: if I build on
myself I build on the shifting sand:
There is no rock of ages: there is only the human heart: there is
only love:
If I build on the heart, on love, I build for always: if I build
on the body, on hate, I build on the shifting sand.