A tough mind and a tender heart
In Martin Luther king Jrs’ book, Strength to Love. The first chapter talks about the importance of having a tough mind and a tender heart.
Incisive thinking, realistic appraisal and decisive judgment characterize a tough mind. As opposed to the soft mind that fears change prejudges and is susceptible to outside forces.
Rarely do we find people who want to engage in hard thinking. You are most likely to find people who are looking for the half-truth or the easy way out. King claims that the soft mindedness of humanity is found in our gullibility. Advertisers and trusted news organizations capitalize on the soft minded individual who follows them blindly. And manipulate their lives by spewing half-truths through the false arbitrations fueling the fire with emotion.
The soft minded always fear change. The tough mind accepts change as needed for the future.
It is important to have a tender heart as well. If you only have a tough mind, the life you live will be cold and void of love. The hardhearted person lacks compassion and never truly loves. It sees people as merely cogs in machine, or leaves in the wind.
King calls on us to bring together a tough mind and a tender heart.
I begin to wonder if the people today, including the youth, are suffering from the soft mindedness described by King. We are so easily riled up by emotion that we make dangerous decisions about our future. We let anything influence our perception in fear of change. We also have a hard heart. To many times I hear of people not caring about the world around them, oblivious to our fellow neighbors plight. We continue own our own, isolated from the truth standing right in our path.
We need to take Kings advice, otherwise heed his warning that ” A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded people purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.”
