I was born in the wake of MLK Jr’s dream.
I wonder how different the world might be if MLK Jr had preached to the masses about his fear of a day when white surpremists ruled the land, when inequality of degradation of the human spirit was expected, when the law of tyranny was revered.
This week, someone I trusted gave me an image of the oceans emptying in the year 2050, and left me there. With no other possibilities. Later that night, in my dreams, I lived in that nightmare as I swam through an empty and abandoned ocean.
So I’m fresh in the reminder about the power of a story, and the unintended consequences left in the wake of many good intentioned, well meaning people. And I’m fresh in the reminder of the capacity of the listener — because If I, the listener, choose to co-create that story of oceans emptying in 2050, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: eat all the fish I can before everyone else makes them all gone. (That’s the voice of how my fearbrain would talk if I consciously opted in to co-create that nightmare.)
I imagine MLK Jr had plenty of conversations with his cohorts about his fears behind closed doors. But when he stood on the stage, he chose to use his platform to amplify a reminder of the past, the truth about what was happening in the moment: while planting a vision for a better and more just world in the future.
It’s kind of mind blowing the climate movement didn’t catch on to MLK’s well documented strategy for social change.
Speak truth to what is not working now: plant the seed of a dream for a better furture.
Imagine if MLK Jr had used fear mongering about how bad the world could get: he might have inspired people to isolate, to numb themselves from the fear of that possibility, or even to deny that such a thing could even happen.
Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke to the virus that fear can become when he warned us of fear itself. Turns out fear might be the the invisible weapon of mass destruction, and one must have the right tools on hand to catch and release it before it spread out of control.
So if you want to bring me your stats and figures and data and colored graphs on everything that might go wrong:
You’d better be carrying a dream in your front pocket you are planning to serve for dessert.
Otherwise: at some point,
when your days come to an end,
and as you consider how you used this precious life,
you may have to wonder if you played a part in planting the nightmare.
Because your words matter.
Philosopher Stephen Jenkinson said something akin to, “Stating the future as if it has already happened is spell casting.”
“Martin Luther King Jr brought us a magnetizing vision of the future.” That’s MLK Jr scholar, Drew Dellinger speaking. “The form of communication of the sermon brings us into the experience of communion; because of MLK’s mastery of oration, he gave us a story to live in for just a few moments where people could feel the possibility of his dream.”
And those people who listened, co-created that dream when they allowed for the seeds of his vision to live inside of them.
It’s worthy to pause and consider what stories and whose dreams we allow to seed inside of us.
There’s a lot of talk about wanting a new story.
I have to wonder if it is an unconscious request to engage in the amnesia that comes as a result of our disconnection from the land.
Because there is no new story.
There is the next chapter, that is built on the foundation or out of the ashes from the chapter before. But if you don’t know where you came from, you don’t get the dignity to stand in the strength of the choices made.
MLK Jr’s call for love and peace was so powerful because it stood the in the face of disrespect, abuse of power, and hate.
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
I’ve worked with a lot of people who are afraid to use their voice. And I’ve had to walk my own path of fear of speaking out.
But we don’t speak for those who don’t want to hear us.
We speak for those who need to hear us:
We speak for those who have a truth stirring inside waiting to be woken.
We speak to wake a shared truth that lives inside of both of us so it has a way to walk among on us.
But what will you wake in others? Fear and Hate?
Love? Communion? Respect? Dignity?
They all live in all of us.
I don’t know about you, but I love this planet Earth.
I also love cats. And the ocean. And swimming with parrot fish that gather around the coral.
And one of my favorite things do on this planet is swim in the song of a singing humpback whale. To honor this love of the ocean, and MLK Jr., I’ve created a game: borrowing MLK Jr.’s phrasing and replacing a few key words to speak to a dream about the state of our environment. I bolded the words I used so you can play along with your own dream. It’s pretty fun.
But we refuse to believe that the bank of Our Oceans will be allowed to be desecrated by those who had the information about their impact of the over use, pollution, and consumtion and had other options for nourishment. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient fund in the great vaults of innovation of this nation.
I have a dream that one day this planet will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all beings who live upon this great planet will be treated as sovereign; humans, animals, and plants on this planet are created equal and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
I have a dream that one day even the United States, a country sweltering with the heat of abuse of resources, disrespect of human, plant, and our animal allies, sweltering with the heat of oppression of the freedom of water through damns and pipe systems, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom, justice, and fair and equal use of the abundance this planet has to offer all beings.
MLK’s I had a Dream Speech:
To read MLK’s words is pretty wonderful. To listen, even better. Here is MLK’s I had a dream speech if you haven’t had the good fortune of hearing it today.
May you have the courage to face your nightmares, and the generosity to share your dreams.
PS: I’m also dreaming of a world where once people learned that the ocean needed our help, they created a declaration of ocean rights to rest and restore.
People around the globe visited the ocean for play and to keep her company, all beings who had other options for nutrition took a break from eating out of the ocean. Some people stopped eating out of the ocean altogether, while others cut their intake in half, while others spoke with local restaurant owners and asked for them to stop serving fish two times a week.
Images from: https://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/martin-luther-king-jr-in-the-new-yorker
