I am very aware that Martin Luther King Jr. day is to be celebrated south of the border, but I do believe I have the right to clap and cheer from anywhere and so I will do exactly that.
Martin Luther King Jr. is synonymous with the Civil Rights struggle and the speech I have a dream, and times have changed. They have changed on the outside, on the inside people remain as undecided as ever, but that is not the direction I wish to travel down.
Times have changed and great opportunity is everywhere. It is hard to believe sometime because of all those down cast eyes and the same old same old. It’s hard to believe because freedom on the outside, doesn’t guarantee freedom on the inside. As Bob Marley beautifully captured in Songs of Freedom, we have to ‘emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, nothing but ourselves can free us now’.
Nothing but ourselves can free us now.
The opportunity is there what remains to be see is if you are going to take it?
The many gatekeepers have gone away with the invention of the internet. Well, maybe they haven’t gone away, they are still there, but the playing field has opened up to all of us. We can connect to one another. We can support one another, and most importantly we can pursue and live out our dreams if we emancipate ourselves from mental slavery.
Slavery to what?
Slavery to defeat and thinking that nothing is ever going to happen for us. Slavery to worry and anxiety that cripples us to sit still and do absolutely nothing. Slavery of listening to other people’s opinions of ourselves. People who do not understand or know us, but who’s opinion we value even above our own.
You are free. Free to be happy and successful. Don’t deny this freedom any longer and act like you mean it. Stand before the gathered multitude of hours and days yet ahead of your life, and deliver to them a version of the future and who you’re going to become. Deliver to them your deepest desires and wants. Give them an opportunity to support you and deliver you what you need.
If you don’t dream, you might as well be dead because as Socrates noted, an unreflected life is not worth living. It is not worth living, if you can’t look back and see your hard work come to pass. It is not worth living, but it is worth living. It is always worth living. Just ask Hellen Keller, who being deaf and blind, has written more inspirational and meaningful words than millions of millions of people who can perfectly see and hear. Millions and millions of people who are seemingly educated. They know how to live, but don’t know why.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day to you and everyone in the world. He was an American citizen who fought for his rights, but he was a world hero. He transcends borders, races and religion. Celebrate his life by embracing yours. What do you dream of? What do you long for?
The days and hours of your life await your order, so why don’t you give them what they want? Why don’t you dream out loud?
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Jeronimo Bernot.
https://unsplash.com/@jerobernot1991
