Take my Hand…The song Martin Luther King requested be played just before he was assassinated.
Martin Luther in his last speech spoke of the time he lived being the one he would choose. If offered the chance to live with and see the great philosophers of Greece, or see Lincoln sign the Emancipation Proclamation or even hear the speech where a president of a struggling country declared “We have nothing to fear save fear itself,” still he would choose to live in the last half of the 20th Century. He felt as if he had a duty having been allowed by God to see from the mountain top. He spoke of encountering the hoses and not fearing for he knew water…He was able to accept his lot, his role in life. He spoke with a sort of a acceptance of hardships inflicted upon him and those he loved. He even accepted the threats and the injuries, and ultimately he was killed, but as I listened to his last speech I never got the impression he was giving even an inch of himself away in his acceptance of what fate decreed. To see the speech,
Acceptance is something I’ve not come close to achieving. A large part of me looks at my MS and tries to pretend it’s just another obstacle to be ignored and denied until I can no longer do so. For what it’s worth, this attitude drives my wife nuts! I understand why, it’s just if I stop when I first feel signs of my body stressing, I may as well stay in bed. For me, stopping to ask for and receive help for every inconvenience would require me to stop being whom I wish to be.
Why define yourself by what you can and can not do? My first thought was “Well then how are we to define ourself?” The best I can come up with is “Why not define yourself by your dreams, what you attempt, and by whom you inspire?”
Remember, so much can be and is done by those who never stopped to consider why they couldn’t.
I wish I had MLK’s view from the mountain. For now, I’m happy to live now with the hindsight of history to let his words and deeds along with the words and deeds of all those who came before me inspire me.
Have you ever stopped to think who makes up the mountain of your inspiration? Parents, holy men and women, and thinkers of by gone eras have all added to the mountain I see before me. Thinking of the view I imagine if only I could climb it. However, I find myself more often than not wandering through the darkness holding a torch hoping to find others to ease the loneliness of the dark. http://thelifewelllived.blogspot.com/2007/07/year-into-it-all-when-i-first-began.html
I envy MLK’s dream and vision. I also find it interesting to think MLK’s I have a dream speech is the one for which he is most famous when I think the mountain top speech is every bit as good and significant.
