Martin Luther King Junior Reflections
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Martin Luther King Legacy
Shed A Little Light On The Things We Do

By Shaiyel Seltzer

I spent yesterday, Martin Luther King's true birthday day, listening to two songs - each over and over again about six hours, "The Things That We Do" and "Shed A Little Light." [I have included the lyrics below.] There are both beautiful songs and commemorate Reverend King Junior differently. But both songs challenge us to question, just what are "The things we do?" What is our personal legacy? What will it say? What will it do?

I have long perceived that Martin Luther King's ways and mannerisms are not only misrepresented, but not presented much in those that contend they love him and are carrying his message. When Reverend King spoke the words of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech it resonates because he was at all of the places he mentions. He spent time there with small groups of people. He lived and breathed those places. He certainly did the inner work, and the inner-peace, but he also traveled. He did not criss-cross the country till the last several years of his life. No, not like today's followers deem. He went from town to town - the smallest of places. He had nothing to sell in the physical. He just went. He just loved people and understood without having to conceptualize what a movement - what a non-profit business is to look like or any type of top-down organization. The purity of how he did what he did is still to this day not been copied.

So let's look at the excuses - the ones we don't admit, "It's too hard. It's too time consuming. I don't like the road. And I don't really want to know anyone and empower them to be leaders where they live because then they won't look to me. Then how will I make a living?"
Have we really put everything on the line for what we believe and strive for or are we just kidding ourselves? I challenge you to spend January 17th reflecting on this. I challenge you to the "willing to die" line as I can truthfully write because I literally did come to those moments several times in my life. I was blind for two months in one eye and could of been blind for the rest of my life for standing up for right. I had a gun in my back and live to tell. I shopped where even the storeowners told me not to come because of my peach skin but my heart and gut said, "I must support them." What are you made of? What are you waiting for?

Martin Luther King Junior, had he lived would be 76 years old today. That is what we want to believe. But lifespan is optional. It is the quality of life and love that matters. It is the number of breaths we breathe in and out. We all breathe differently - at different speeds and lengths. No one chooses for us our quality of life. We must choose for ourselves. Find your Intention for 2005. Choose well.

So bless the Spirit of Michael "Martin" Luther King Junior, who never asked for light to come from any government, and yet, always took a Stand.

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"I Have A Dream"
http://www.mecca.org/~crights/dream.html

Biography
http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

The Martin Luther King Junior Papers Project
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/



"The Things We Do"
Yolanda Adams
Album: Mountain High, Valley Low

John F. Kennedy "I ask from the citizens of the world. Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

Verse 1:
Every day that goes by
Every moment you'll find
There's a broken heart
A tear is cried
A wish is made
That never comes true
And somewhere someone needs to be found

Chorus:
Oh the things we do, the things we say
Are gentle rays of hope that touch us all each day, oh each day yes
The things we do, the things we say
These are the greatest gifts we'll ever give away
The things we do
Oh yeah

Verse 2:
Now every day in this life
Every moment you'll find
A heart is healed
A dream is found
A tear is dried
And laughter is heard
And somewhere someone's life will be changed

Chorus:
Oh the things we do, the things we say
Are gentle rays of hope that touch us all each day
The things we do, the things we say
These are the greatest gifts we'll ever give away
The things we do

Bridge:
Oh every hand that has been held
Has reached out for somebody else
In every move we make
Every day
We pass love on this way

Chorus:
The things we do - yes, the things we say
Are gentle rays of hope that touch us all each day
Oh the things we do, the things we say
These are the greatest gifts we'll ever give, give away
The things we do

So when you wake up in the morning and you find someone lost and lonely just take them by the hand and help them find their way.
When you walkin' down the street and you see a man who has no food to eat, just reach into your pocket and help make a stand

Martin Luther King Junior: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood." "When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"

Oh the things we do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Shed a Little Light"
by James Taylor
Album: New Moon Shine

Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the Earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong
We are bound together
By the task that stands before us
And the road that lies ahead
We are bound and we are bound

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

Shed a little light, oh Lord
So that we can see
Just a little light, oh Lord
Wanna stand it on up
Stand it on up, oh Lord
Wanna walk it on down
Shed a little light, oh Lord

Can't get no light from the dollar bill
Don't give me no light from a TV screen
When I open my eyes
I wanna drink my fill
From the well on the hill

(Do you know what I mean?)
Shed a little light, oh Lord
So that we can see
Just a little light, oh Lord
Wanna stand it on up
Stand it on up, oh Lord
Wanna walk it on down
Shed a little light, oh Lord

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

Oh, Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the Earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood