Family, today we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr day. His official birthday is January 15th. I hope that you are taking a few minutes to reflect on his message and his legacy, share something important with the little ones. MLK is known for many symbolic things and for his passionate and life changing speeches. I still cannot listen to his legendary "I HAVE A DREAM" speech without my eyes tearing up or my skin being filled with goosebumps, it continues to transcend boundaries every time it is played,printed,read or listened to.
However, I wanted to focus on something a little different today. I wanted to show another side to this legendary,iconic figure. I wanted to show him as a mere man who was clearly smitten or hopelessly in love and expressed his love through letters to soon to be wife Coretta Scott. Martin, wrote Coretta numerous letters during their courtship as was customary at this time.The two first paragraphs of the one i will share is one of my favorites, I felt compelled to share with you guys. I have to be honest, re-reading this made me want to hand write a love letter, fold it in that special way and send it to that special person. Who remembers that ????? I know I'm not the only one and I am mot that old:-) Family, you know,the ones that you use to receive with cologne sprayed all over it or the ones you use to put in mail with hearts, bows and initials in a heart, sprayed with your special fragrance...what!!!!!!
Enjoy this special letter from Martin Luther King Jr. to Coretta Scott written on July 18,1952.
Friday Morning
Dearest,
Fortunately, I am in a better mood today. your letter
was sweet and refreshing to my heart, which had well-nigh grown cold
toward you.Of
course I have become convinced in the last few days that my love for
you is based on such a solid foundation that the stormy winds of anger
cannot blow it assunder. Love is such a dynamic force isn’t it? It is
the most inexplicable and yet the most beautiful force in life. O how
joyous it is to be in it.
Darling I miss you so much. In fact, much to much for
my own good. I never realized that you were such an intimate part of my
life. My life without you is like a year without a spring time which
comes to give illumination and heat to the atmosphere which has been
saturated by the dark cold breeze of winter. Can you imagine the
frustration that a King without a throne would face? Such would be my
frustration if I in my little kinghood could not reign at the throne of
Coretta. O excuse my darling. I didn’t mean to go off on such a poetical
and romantic flight. But how else can we express the deep emotions of
life other than in poetry. Isn’t love to ineffable to be grasped by the
cold calculating heads of intellect?
By the way (to turn to something more intellectual) I have just completed Bellamy’s Looking Backward.
It was both stimulating and fascinating. There can be no doubt about
it. Bellamy had the insight of a social prophet as well as the fact
finding mind of the social scientist. I welcomed the book because much
of its content is in line with my basic ideas. I imagine you already
know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than
capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have
failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high
motive, viz, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most
human system it fail victim to the very thing it was revolting against...
Yet with his basic thesis I would concur. Our
economic system is going through a radical change, and certainly this
change is needed. I would certainly welcome the day to come when there
will be a nationalization of industry. Let us continue to hope, work,
and pray that in the future we will live to see a war less world, a
better distribution of wealth, and a brotherhood that transcends race or
color. This is the gospel that I will preach to the world. At this
point I must thank you a million times for introducing me to such a
stimulating book. you are sweet and thoughtful indeed....
Be sweet and remember that daddy loves you.
Eternally yours
[signed] “Martin”
P.S Hope you can read my bad writing
HAPPY MLK DAY EVERYONE. Much love&Walk good!!!!
