Wisdom that Stands the Test of Time.

I publicly honor him every year. No other movement in my lifetime has been more impactful and as empowering as Dr. King’s sweeping message.

Dreaming of the day when ‘content would trump the cover’, that’s a staggeringly huge message. And not that I saw this all along…(what made/makes the revelation so staggering in my mind) ...is how we all can benefit from getting to know each other’s stories, ahem, straight from the source. For me, memoir reading is it, though reading is not the end all be all. 

I know for a fact. Three-hundred-page book reading does not come easily for everyone. Under my Christmas tree this year was a book by Dale Carnegie... gifted to me. ‘How to Win Friends & Influence People.’ Like, how’s that for a little subtlety? Thank goodness I chew with my mouth closed! 

At any rate, opened the book to learn, not only was the self-helpish tome published in ’36, as in 1936, a few pages in I found out I’m supposed to read this book at least twice, and carry it around like a pocketbook... to consult like a Thesaurus. Ummm…no. Don’t foresee that happening, though hopefully I’ll be able to finish it… (at least once).

The point. On GP (general principle) it can be taxing to read…period. Check out some of these reading challenges. Even avid readers, on average, thoroughly read no more than 50 books a year. That’s not a lot given the billions on Earth. Do the math. It would take some kind of prodigious bibliophile situation for us to know everybody’s stories and point of views from a reading standpoint…at this point in this topic. Still, striving not to judge a cover before examining the content is a powerful message.

…Something like Dr. King’s message of driving out hate with love. Admittedly, that whole “turning the other cheek” was not easy viewing during the fight for basic civil rights. To this day, forgiving is possible, but forgetting, forgetaboutit. Remembering followers following a leader bent on nonviolence proved positively tough for quite a few. Those were some really hard years, despite…on the surface…the whole “turning the other cheek” worked.

Schools were integrated. People sat where they wanted on buses. Black people got jobs. Bought homes. Sometimes gorgeous homes. Some today are even making millions, perhaps attracting so much attention others want to come on over and share in the prosperity. Except, that’s only looking at a part of the picture. While the outer aesthetics…’the cover’… appear promising, ‘the content’…the details beneath the cover require reading …or quite a bit of examining to reach fact-based hard-boiled conclusions. 

Celebrating the wisdom ‘in’ Dr. King’s tremendous, still relevant message, 365.

#Writers #Readers #MemoirLovers #MLKHoliday #HonoringDrKing365 #Just Blogged