you may say i'm a dreamer, but i'm not the only one

today is a day to celebrate dreams.

sometimes i have a hard time believing in the world. i get microscopic glimpses of the pain and trouble that so many face (often because of the circumstances they are born to), and then i feel overwhelmed by the complexity of solving the problems that cause this pain. like most people lately, i've had haiti on my mind. more accurately, i've had haiti blowing my mind. i want to help. i want to contribute. and i don't want to just make an electronic transaction of funds and feel like my job is done.

i am learning much from the intersection of martin luther king day and the earthquake in haiti. i learned today, for example, that the core of mlk jr's message was aimed at eliminating poverty. (read here for more on the complexity in haiti, esp. as relates to poverty.)

"We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life's highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished. That is where we are now." (mlk jr.)

i feel a lot of confusion and ambivalence about what i can do in the world because i want to be efficient, effective, and personal. usually, my retreat position is "serve locally," but i'm learning how little i know about my community, particularly the needs of specific people. and i don't want to just reframe my existing interactions as service.

"For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?" (Matthew 5:46)

"Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the inaction of those who are good." (mlk jr.)

i'm looking to expand my sphere. any ideas?

here are specific things i've learned from martin luther king jr. today:

we need each other. we need the combined experience, wisdom, and love of a whole planet working to relieve the suffering of our brothers and sisters.

we need dreamers with vision and integrity who remind us that seemingly impossible goals still deserve the dedication of a life.

"I guess one of the great agonies in life is that we are constantly trying to finish that which is unfinishable. And so we find ourselves in so many instances having to face the fact that our dreams are not fulfilled." (mlk jr.)

love is always a worthy cause.

sometimes i wonder who i would've been fifty years ago. what side of the lines would i have stood on, and would i have helped to rub those lines away? it is easy for me to praise great courage with hindsight in my favor, but would i have seen things so clearly then?

i hope so. i wonder what i'm not seeing today, what challenges i balk at, and what opportunities to help those around me i pass by.

i believe in a future that is better than the past.

(if you want to read something good about remembering mlk day, go here)