Keep your face to the sun. As the day goes down let your cheer go up.
The reminiscence of the light will last through the darkness. Do not
lean upon what you absorb. Depend upon what you bestow. Meet the
sufficient noonglare with a haughtier illumination. Do not reject
sorrow. Do not shut your door in its face. Invite it in. Make it feel at
home. The heart in which sorrow is an alien misses its most sacred
tenant. You will not make sorrow the master of the house. But you will
include sorrow among your guests. The purport of the house is joy. The
purport of the house is health. The earth may pass into a cloud. But the
purport of the earth is not the cloud. Things go wrong. But the purport
of things is right. You see injustices. You see victims. You see
shipwrecks. But the purport of experience is righteousness, deliverance,
salvation. No matter which way I look I keep the sun in my face. Just as
though looking into hell I keep heaven in my face. Just as though
looking at cruelty I keep kindness in my face. Just as though looking at
the struggle I keep the victory in my face. I am haunted with presences
which arm me with peace. There is evil. We cant explain it. But there is
good, too. And we cant explain good. I do not wait for the universe to
explain itself. For love to argue its case. Maybe the universe cant be
explained. Maybe love cant be argued about. Why should I put question
marks into the sky in place of stars? It is my main business to live. To
live nearest the best life I can discover. To live nearest the natural
laws. To live nearest people. Not to ask for preferences. Not to expect
odds. To live. To spread power. To confer exhilaration. To let the sun
shine out of my face. For enough reasons or for no reason at all to let
the sun shine. Taking the sun for granted. Taking the best for granted
even in the face of the worst. Not being afraid that when the clock runs
down it can never be started again. Expecting surpluses but being
satisfied with shortages. Taking fame if it comes and humbling myself
with it. Not reaching out for honors which do not belong to me. Letting
the honors go or stay. Keeping sacred counsel with my own soul. Letting
the returns take care of themselves. Shedding the light. Not sneaking
about the earth as if life had to be hid away or enjoyed in the dark.
Not snarling at men as if they had to be barked into kennels. Not going
among men with discounts. Going among men with premiums. Adding a little
to everything I come near to or look at. A little more love. A little
more justice. A little more loyalty. A little more resolution. I have no
logic for my joy. But I have joy for it. Or for my affection for you.
But I have you for it. Or for my devotion to the great cause. But I have
the great cause for it. I can cite no justifications. But I can cite my
comrades. I cite myself. I cite you. I cite the books I read. I cite the
struggle against money. They are enough. They are sun enough for me.
They explain enough. Love explains enough though it dont explain at all.
The cause explains enough though it dont explain at all. And the
abounding light: it too explains enough. The vast interstreaming dazzle
of noontime: it explains nothing but it explains enough. I who question
so much am silent. I who doubt so much accept. I who love so much do not
ask for pay. Keep your face to the sun. A greater sun may shine in your
face.
Keep your face to the sun. No matter what comes between keep your face
to the sun. When your salary comes between. When the contempt of your
enemies and the fear of your friends come between. When ruin comes
between. No matter what may come between. Keep your face to the sun. You
will be driven and warned. You will be despised and tempted. You will be
misunderstood. You will be summoned into courts of public prejudice. You
will be asked the questions of reaction and disease. But you will keep
your face to the sun. Though the sun goes in behind a cloud will keep
your face to the sun. Though the sun fails to get into your picture will
keep your picture to the sun. When you take an office and the office is
between. When you have ambitions that come between. When cowardice comes
between. When praise comes between. When even the love of your dearest
comrade comes between. You will keep your face to the sun. I do not
promise you fruit without the seed of the fruit. You will plant. And
much that you plant may come to nothing in the ground. Though it may
come to much in your heart. You will pour out property. Give the last
cent. Go stripped, utterly shorn, into the contest. But you will keep
your face to the sun. Yes: you will despair. You will say you dont see
why you should keep up the fight. You will want to sell your birthright.
You will grudge men success. You will travel where no eye can chart the
way. You will taste the bitterest defeat. You will be jealous and cruel.
Your brute self will stand between you and the sun. Yet you will always
stand with your face to the sun. I do not suppose anything malign comes
to any man which may not just as well come to you. That no
disappointment can come. That no tragedy can come. That you too may lose
fortunes. May lose more than fortunes. May lose hope. May lose relation
with the cosmos. That you too may be cut adrift from the crowd. May be
crushed by the law. May have your trust violated. May be deceived. May
read the promises of faith backward. May challenge justice. May go in
for the abolition of brotherhood. May fool the prophets. Things do go
wrong in life though life itself never goes wrong. Events do conspire
against the plans of men. But they do not conspire against men. We have
to take all into account. All the momentary repulses. We often ride a
very roundabout course to victory. A course through disappointment. A
course through direct losses. A course over bad roads. Encountering the
devious motives of our companions. Do you keep your face to the sun? No
matter which way you go you may keep your face to the sun. East or west
or north or south or up or down or across it is all the same. You may
keep your face to the sun. Your face shining with a light all its own.
Your face baffling all rivalries of solar glory. You who ride to death
may ride to life. You may turn your back to the sun. But the sun never
turns its back to you. You may turn your back to the soul. The soul
never turns its back to you. You may scorn the sentiment of man. You may
make light of the romance of lovers. You may look with disdain upon the
ignorant and the stupid. You may take care of yourself at the expense of
others. You may postpone or destroy the impulse to give. Your life may
be a life of seizure and appropriation. May ride shod rough over the
crowd. May accept every advantage of position. Every advantage of
culture. Not acquiescing in the general liberties. Flourishing your
gifts like clubs. Demanding awe and worship. Quoting your money or your
genius as evidence of your superiority. Standing aside when the people
invite you to serve. Pulling back when the people try to go on. Being
satisfied with your surplus when the people have too little to eat and
too little to wear. This may be your burden. This may be your bloodred
sin. This may be your rack. You may shrink from the sun. Your face may
turn the other way. May prefer the darkness of possession to the light
of atonement. Your eyes may be weak. May not be able to stand the
sunbeams. May take no sun in and have no sun to give out. Your eyes may
endure tyranny but not endure freedom. May endure seeing labor suffer
but not endure seeing labor enfranchised. May endure their inheritance
but not endure their vista. This is the tragedy of the pilgrim. He
passes across the earth. The path is often dark and uncertain. Often he
has to feel, because he cannot see, his way through. Then he is driven
back upon his conclusions. What are his conclusions? Conclusions of
triumph or conclusions of disaster? Conclusions for one or conclusions
for all? Conclusions of property or conclusions of the soul? In the
eclipse of reason all depends upon the conclusions. In the disappearance
of all you have seen all depends upon the appearance of what you have
not seen. What are your conclusions? When all resource gives out. When
the road seems to end. When faculty and vision have lost the impulse of
appeal. Then all depends upon the conclusion. The conclusion to abandon
all gobetweens and trust yourself to the soul. The conclusion to refuse
all preferments and trust yourself to the people. The conclusion to face
the sun even if it blind you. The conclusion to meet sun with sun. The
splendid sun sufficing for the love of the body with the sun more
splendid sufficing for the love of the spirit.
Keep your face to the sun. I love you, O sun. But I too am a sun.
Sometimes I think I light you: that you dont light me. That I each day
rekindle your expiring fires. That if I did not come up in the morning
you would not come up. That you do not appear at the horizon greeting
the world. That I appear. That you do not cross the heavens glorifying
your unrivalled passage and sanctifying your retrospect with the
matchless twilight. That I cross the heavens. That all the majesty and
the wonder inheres to me. That I do not depend upon you. That you depend
upon me. That Persia did not worship you. That Persia worshipped me.
That after all you are only the form while I am the substance. That you
might be blotted out. That no harm would come to man. But that if I was
blotted out the fate of man would be sealed in annihilation. That I have
ejected you from the heavens and assumed your place. That you no longer
rule, godstrong on a celestial throne. That I rule, man-potent in the
hum of the common street. That the farms and the orchards do not look to
you for fructification. That they look to me. That all harvests are my
harvests. Harvests of fields as well as harvests of hearts. Harvests of
justice as well as harvests of things. Harvests of ideals as well as
harvests of deeds. That the supreme life is not there with you in the
orbits of the heavens. That they are here with me in the twists and
turns of alleys and pikes. I see now O sun that it is important to be a
sun but that it is more important to be a man. That it is right to shine
like a sun but that it is more than right to shine like a lover. That
everything whatever seen or unseen is great and awes me. But that there
is something neither seen nor unseen that stirs me to mightier results.
That it is no mistake to make much of your genial flame: that you give
life without question and cannot be denied your pay. That it is still
less a mistake to make more of my precedent endowments: that they give
ampler life without question and cannot be denied their pay. The pay of
the sun is the pay of the crops. Is the pay of houses. Is the pay of
dividends. Is the pay of profit and loss. The pay of my dreams is the
pay of love. Is the pay of men and women and children. Is the pay of
immortality. I too O sun get down on my knees to you. I too O sun stand
erect honoring you. I too O sun gather with the crowds acknowledging
your first causes. I too O sun let no rival shame my tribute. I too O
sun call you God. And you, O sun, do you realizing yourself admit me?
You too O sun: do you get down on your knees honoring me? Do you O sun
gathering with the stars and the wheat and the factories acknowledge my
first causes? Do you O sun bringing tribute do as much for me as any
other and more? Do you O sun call me God? I have said of you O sun: you
feed my body. Do you say of me O sun: you feed my soul? I have said to
my darling comrades the lands and seas over gasping for life: Keep your
face to the sun. I have said to them: No matter what happens, no matter
for barbarism and murder, no matter for robbery and starvation, no
matter for yawning perditions, keep your face to the sun. And I say to
you O sun subtracting no atom from the sum of your illimitability: Keep
your face to me. Comrades: Come: assemble yourselves about me. The first
word shall be the last word and the last word the first word again: Keep
your face to the sun.