This quote came in to my in box this morning,
"All this is simply to say that all life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in this world, no man can be totally rich even if he has a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people cannot expect to live more than twenty or thirty years, no man can be totally healthy, even if he just got a clean bill of health from the finest clinic in America. Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way the world is made." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is daunting to write anything after that, like being at an event and having to follow a speech like that. Really. This is such an amazing statement. I read this, this morning, and found myself really seeing how significant we all are, and at the same time insignificant, yet we run around thinking we and our lives are so important. I know I certainly fall in that trap. Here I sit finally filling out my LinkedIn account, and I have to chuckle to myself as to the importance it really has in the big scheme of things..but I also find if I don't do it, I am somehow, possibly, missing something, some connection..as we all try to connect, all day long.
I love love love the line, "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be."
God it just really got me thinking. I sit here in my little retreat, whirling away the hours at a keboard or painting a room, and while there is a lot to be said for "soul work" in the solitude of one's 4 walls, I see I am at times DIS connected. I am amazed at people like MLK Jr. who are so CONnected..how they do it, without totally feeling exhausted. How they keep charging ahead day after day, in a deep quest they may never reach. Like all the people trying so hard to save Haiti. I read the reports and am quite awestruck by the capacity people have to help. I don't know, this, this line, "All this is simply to say that all life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny..." just really holds me in its grasp, and I wonder, is donating to the Red Cross the answer, giving money to your local shelter, recycling, eating organic, sending money to Feed the Children, C A R E, saving the whales, saving the environment, it goes on and on. We have become so bloated with people, it is almost beyond comprehension of the task in front of us. While I believe we have to help, in the name of humankind, I am not sure if we can stop the freight train of the doom of so many, and I hate to say that, but maybe it is like a math problem way beyond my comprehension, and the answer is there, but I just cannot see it right now.
"All this is simply to say that all life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in this world, no man can be totally rich even if he has a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people cannot expect to live more than twenty or thirty years, no man can be totally healthy, even if he just got a clean bill of health from the finest clinic in America. Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way the world is made." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
It is daunting to write anything after that, like being at an event and having to follow a speech like that. Really. This is such an amazing statement. I read this, this morning, and found myself really seeing how significant we all are, and at the same time insignificant, yet we run around thinking we and our lives are so important. I know I certainly fall in that trap. Here I sit finally filling out my LinkedIn account, and I have to chuckle to myself as to the importance it really has in the big scheme of things..but I also find if I don't do it, I am somehow, possibly, missing something, some connection..as we all try to connect, all day long.
I love love love the line, "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be."
God it just really got me thinking. I sit here in my little retreat, whirling away the hours at a keboard or painting a room, and while there is a lot to be said for "soul work" in the solitude of one's 4 walls, I see I am at times DIS connected. I am amazed at people like MLK Jr. who are so CONnected..how they do it, without totally feeling exhausted. How they keep charging ahead day after day, in a deep quest they may never reach. Like all the people trying so hard to save Haiti. I read the reports and am quite awestruck by the capacity people have to help. I don't know, this, this line, "All this is simply to say that all life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny..." just really holds me in its grasp, and I wonder, is donating to the Red Cross the answer, giving money to your local shelter, recycling, eating organic, sending money to Feed the Children, C A R E, saving the whales, saving the environment, it goes on and on. We have become so bloated with people, it is almost beyond comprehension of the task in front of us. While I believe we have to help, in the name of humankind, I am not sure if we can stop the freight train of the doom of so many, and I hate to say that, but maybe it is like a math problem way beyond my comprehension, and the answer is there, but I just cannot see it right now.
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