"In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

i started out this dr. martin luther king jr. morning, initially thinking how lucky my friends with whom I had just shared a wonderful dinner celebration the night before, were for not having to go to work today. Stumbling out of my bed into the universe, those thoughts of the drudgery and stress of my work tasks which lay ahead of me began settling in my mind. yet, as i come to the close of this special day, at night, i am feeling something different. i knew i had felt compelled to do something today in his honor, but i didn't know exactly what. what is it that i could do to honor the legacy of justice and equality that dr. martin luther king jr. had brought to this world? i began perusing the charity focus blogs, and came across a wonderfully inspiring quote that linked up to a great article by the reverend's friend, Marian Wright Edelman, an activist and winner of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism. in her efforts to bring a sense of life to the symbol that dr. martin luther king jr. has become to many of us, she came to the heart of what mlk was all about-he was a man who lived to serve and died in service---whether it was during the struggle he lead to fight against segregation through galvanizing communities through faith, peace, and solidarity, or through the montgomery bus boycott, or through speaking at black universities, or preaching to a church congregation. so, as marian edelman, leaves us with this thought to use this yearly holiday as a "day on, not a day off," her wisdom suggests to me that to truly honor such a man, would be to serve. now, as i reflect upon my day and consider my role as a legal advocate for a nonprofit domestic violence agency that serves battered women in the south asian community, i realized that i had the answer to my question all along...by helping a client, or working on a funding project, or answering a phone call to respond to a victim in need, i was in fact, honoring the legacy of dr. mlk jr. in the best way i could-in service. so, perhaps, i was the lucky one today after all! :)
i have attached the link to marian's article here for reference as a source of inspiration to all.
http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20060123j
i'll close with a quote by the great man himself which is taken from the article and hints at how the ability to spark positive social change is literally at our fingertips:
"If you want to be important-wonderful. If you want to be recognized-wonderful. If you want to be great-wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love."
-dr. martin luther king jr.
~in peace&service,
mitu