“Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Is there a joyous salutation to mark Martin Luther King Day? Happy MLK Day! Merry Martin Day! They just don’t seem right. Yet, I feel that the day deserves some sort of greeting, a mark to note its imprint on our psyches. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quotes abound, and the relevance today is astounding. We revere one man for his greatness but seem to neglect the gems of greatness that sparkle inside all of us every single day.
Greatness is not an end point, a destination. Greatness is a process, a state of mind.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of our federal observance of Martin Luther King Day. It has come to be a national day of service. All over the country kids are cleaning up parks, communities are packing care packages, families are delivering supplies and food to animals in shelters. Parents are poring over websites to find age appropriate activities for their wee ones. Offices are arranging groups to build houses, stuff boxes, tutor kids. All around the country people are paying their respects to a man who embodied greatness, service, integrity.
And then tomorrow…well, it’s just another day. Hmmmm, reminds me of all the Earth Day hullabahoo.
A national day of service is a reminder to us to do more. Everyday. A day of service is not just a check mark on our to-do list. This should set an example for us, a guide to act on MLK’s powerful words. Words alone do not lift a community; it takes action and heart and generosity. Between jetting around town for ballet lessons, soccer practice, scouts, and book club meetings, we should schedule time to serve. It doesn’t take much, but the effect can be grand.
Forget the newspaper inserts that commemorate Martin Luther King day with SALES! and CLOSE OUTS! and LOW PRICES! Mark today as a step in life’s walk of Greatness.
The content of our character is measured over a lifetime, not just one day a year.
Check out ways to live by Martin Luther King’s principles all year long:
Martin’s Big Words (a family favorite in our series of children’s books about the civil rights movement)
Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina
List of ideas for kids to lend a hand
Ilina, what a nice to the point way to put it. Way to tune our perspective towards the long view.