We are Important

Gwendolyn Brooks wrote a poem for her children. It is a little but lovely book to read called "Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress Toward." What amazes me about this book is what she says at the end ‘Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song, but Live in the along.’

What she tells us, the children of God and universe, is that we have to live for the present. We have to be in the moment. Whatever that happened to you in your past has no power over this present moment, because life is now!!

Nonetheless, Dr Martin Luther King said that not everybody can be famous. It is quite unfortunate that most of us live each day trying to please others, trying to be like others. Do not get me wrong. It is good to be ambitious. But fame is a trip.

If you read the rest of what Dr. King says, he reckons that everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service. He acknowledges the fact that you do not have to have a degree to serve. You do not have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You do not have to know about Plato or Aristotle to serve. You do not have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You do not have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.

This is a lesson I value a lot. Maybe each of us would appreciate it for we all believe that what matters most is what is inside our heart. What matters most is the sense of integrity, of quality and beauty. 

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