MLK Day
it’s MLK day. i have nothing monumental to say, but i do remember the first time i ever saw video of him speaking. i was about 6 and my father was fixing a movie projecter for my mom’s high school. the reel that was in there was of the “i have a dream” speech. i remember thinking i had never heard or seen anything like that before in my life. i don’t remember even having any understanding whatsoever of what he was talking about. i just remember feeling the emotion with which he spoke. i wasn’t necessarily a paragon of morality at the time (though in my defense, how many six year olds are), so i distinctly remember that i wanted to not return the reel.
anyway, if anyone has never listened to a couple of his most famous speeches, it’s worth a listen. both are amazing. “I Have a Dream” is of course his most famous. certainly most chilling, however, is “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” particularly when you realize that he delivered this speech on the night before he was killed. when i had my wreck, the last word i said before impact was a rather unseemly curse word. i remember thinking afterwards, i should probably see to it that if anything serious ever happens to me again, i have something better to say. i can’t listen to that speech without feeling that he was somehow prescient of his impending demise. what an amazing benediction of his own life. seriously, i dare you to listen to that, with the full knowledge that 24 hours later he would be dead and not get the chills. at a minimum the last 8 minutes or so are worth hearing, starting with his story of “the good samaritan”.
