A Late MLK Jr. Post and Other Bits

Rediscovering the following quote from Martin Luther King Jr.,

"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

prompted me to post some others I like:

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."

"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him."

"Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man."

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."

"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

"Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority."

"Let no man pull you low enough to hate him."

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

Not only did MLK Jr. speak against racism, but he had wise words for a number of topics.  Such topics include the promise of peace and love, the importance of thinking and kindness, and the goodness with forgiveness, justice, and nonviolence.  I meant to post something like this for MLK Jr. Day but didn't get a chance.

Our blizzard only lasted a day and now we are in for some around zero temps.  I have to walk carefully as there is still a lot of ice around.

The blizzard walk was cold and windy.  It gave me some time to think some things over.  The wind swirling the snow and building drifts was quite beautiful.

The day's been rocky but now I am at a more peaceful mood.  I have had plenty of good food (including a banana and orange) and coffee, some good conversation, and pondering.  Soon I will sleep.

Good night!