Discounts!!
Special sales merchandise!!!!!
Day Off!!!!!!!!!
Must be a national holiday in the United States….
And it is.
Monday marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day…a National Holiday in the United States – established with some controversy – still contentious, no doubt, amongst some quarters – but in general has achieved the same status of other National Holidays – that is day off for retail shopping.
Frankly, many in the US – maybe even most – have lost the plot for these special days. Sadly days that could be used for national and even international reflection have become little more than time out entitlement.
To that end – I have always tried to share a reflection or two on the Days that I thought were universal or rather had universal appeal – so, for example, on Columbus Day you won’t find me sharing thoughts…unless it’s on the dangers of colonization which I don’t believe was the point of the day…maybe it should be…
However, of all the days, MLK Day speaks to me the closest in as I remember him; remember his speeches; remember how as boy of 9 or so he entered my consciousness and shaped my thinking. And of course I remember with horror the day he was murdered and the sadness I felt – a personal loss…like I had known him…and the fear I felt for the hatred behind it.
To that end I’d like to share a thought of his. The truth is he was a global symbol – still is – and his words resonate today as they did back then – to all.
Listen:
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
A lesson for all of us. How easy it is to be confined by what we see in front of us; by our “9 to 5” existence; by our friends and family – all good and all important – but narrow nevertheless.
In memory….
What do you think?
B/c from age 9, you remember Martin L. King, Jr., then you partially “own” MLK day. Shopping = owning (something) has become a symbol of “freedom” — of the equal right to OWN. But isn’t it what is PROVIDED to all, equally, that defines equality? We all need to own MLK day, to create equality everyday. We city dwellers will recognize true equality when we see what Jane Jacobs envisioned, ” “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Two thoughts come to mind: the first hearkens back to the days of the talmudic sages who asserted that whomsoever saves one soul saves a whole world. True on many levels, but in connection to your MLK quote, it touches on the fact that in everyone of us there is a whole universe. That is why we are also responsible for one another and, by extenion, for what happens to society at large. The second thought is even more striking to me: we speak a great deal about the \us\ and \them\; the inner circles and the \other\ who is at the city’s gate asking to come in or barging in. But if you only realise your human potential by rising above your own concerns; or if you save a whole world by saving one person, perhaps there is no \us and them\. The \us\ and the \them\ may actually be one entity, or at least a continuum of similarities. Embracing the other is actually loving yourself.
Tyler Screeches The National Anthem…
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