why to get up in the morning

Find the Spark!

Why get up in the morning?

Bill Turner looks at us, challenges us:

help another “find the spark!”

the reason to get up in the morning,

purpose, meaning,

the fire that can burn within

and that can spread the light to others,

then the night will fall back

before the rising of the dawn,

look at another’s eyes,

beware finding a dullness there,

nothing can be more beautiful than the self

that looks back at you,

particularly when the occupant is in—

in, and present, and ready to risk

placing one block, then another, upon each other,

in a world that seems to hate connection,

to celebrate dissolution,

I spend my life seeing kids

and helping each find the spark within,

releasing it so that the world can brighten,

neither skin, nor gender, nor self-doubt

should suppress the flare!

by Henry H. Walker
April 13, ’18

at Duke University Reunion, 

quoting Reverend Bill Turner, 

one of the first African-American football players at Duke,

who later joined the Divinity School at Duke,

mentor to Rev. William Barber,

a major current leader in moral issues.