Got MLK?

I wrote the song "What Will You Do?" last year on MLK day when it occurred to me that the freedoms that we enjoy here in America are mostly and grossly taken for granted by the vast majority of the population. So many lives are fully spent in the pursuit of personal gains rising high above the level of simple creature comfort to soar into the realm of excess and frivolity. While in the depths below, children born in lesser straights become tainted by envy for those luxuries that seem to be the cornucopia of success and grow up with a hunger for those bounties that feed the ego and lead the spirit towards starvation. This, I believe, is the natural evolution and legacy of the economic culture in which so many Americans take so much pride.

But the human race has stepped far beyond its natural boundaries and could, if it chooses, walk a more compassionate path that values not the elevation of a few as if they have some special qualities other than the blind luck of a fortunate birth or an over-inflated greed that grows from a distorted sense of self, but rather promotes the equanimity of every person regardless of those imposed labels that we use to separate ourselves.

In order to heal this sickness of greed that infests the culture, we must first look towards treating ours own ills. The cure for greed is its opposite state of mind, namely generosity. And the cure for hatred is love. Generating and fostering these beneficial mental states is the only way to change the world; it must be done internally to have an effect externally.

Imagine a pond as smooth as glass. Toss a pebble into that pond and the ripples will radiate and produce change over the entire surface of the water. Even when the pond is agitated and the tiny waves from the thrown stone seem to disappear into the chaos, they still have an effect. These are our thoughts and actions that appear to be overwhelmed by the wind-blown bedlam of a world that feels beyond our influence. But our mental and physical intent leaves their wake even across the universe. And those jagged boulders of greed and intolerance will erode and be washed away when enough altruistic waves break against the shore.

So in the spirit and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. I would encourage you to begin the process. In the darkness of greed, be the lamp of generosity. In the gale winds of intolerance, be the shelter of acceptance. And in the frigid winter of hatred, be the warmth of love.

Peace be with you.