With Martin Luther King Day approaching, I was reading through some of his writings and the great speeches he gave throughout his life. You are familiar with many of them – Letter from the Birmingham City Jail; his “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial; the Drum Major Instinct speech. If you have not read them (or read them recently), go look them up.  They never fail to inspire. 

But I came across a speech he gave in February 1968, after the civil rights movement had made great progress, but still had a long way to go.  The speech resonated with me, and I wanted to share an early passage with you: 

“I'm sure that each of you has read that arresting little story from the pen of Washington Irving entitled Rip Van Winkle. One thing that we usually remember about the story of Rip Van Winkle is that he slept twenty years. But there is another point in that story which is almost always completely overlooked: it is the sign on the inn of the little town on the Hudson from which Rip went up into the mountains for his long sleep. When he went up, the sign had a picture of King George III of England. When he came down, the sign had a picture of George Washington, the first president of the United States. When Rip Van Winkle looked up at the picture of George Washington he was amazed, he was completely lost. He knew not who he was. This incident reveals to us that the most striking thing about the story of Rip Van Winkle is not merely that he slept twenty years, but that he slept through a revolution. While he was peacefully snoring up in the mountains a revolution was taking place in the world that would alter the face of human history. Yet Rip knew nothing about it; he was asleep. One of the great misfortunes of history is that all too many individuals and institutions find themselves in a great period of change and yet fail to achieve the new attitudes and outlooks that the new situation demands. There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution.” 

The revolution that Dr. King was talking about, of course, was the revolution for civil rights.  And it changed the country and our world. 

King encouraged the audience, above all, to “remain awake,” to keep a perspective on what was happening in the world around us, to be careful of celebrating exaggerated progress, but to move forward with a positive bias toward action, and a belief that our challenges also present great opportunities. 

We have much to be proud of in our service to others, and much more to do.  Let’s all remain awake and optimistic about our capacity to continuously change and improve.  

We are asked to honor Dr. King’s legacy this weekend with action and in service. I hope your weekend offers the opportunity to renew your own commitment to service! 

Jon