Martin Luther King and Love by danpatmore

I have been thinking about love. It’s been inspired by watching a documentary on Martin Luther King. It was focusing on the idea of him as a prophet and the importance of his religion to him and in his speeches. A few things struck me;
1) was how eerily recent his life and struggle was
2) how there is still so much racial and religious injustice, intolerance and hate in this world
3) how current so many key quotes of his remain today.

There is a timeless quality to some of his speeches and that in itself is a sad testament of society.

One thing that kept ringing out throughout the piece was his messages of love, quite notably ‘extremist love’. The word extremist is enough to make you squirm in this day and age of conflict. But an extremist in love? Wow. I wish I could be that committed to caring for the rest of the planet.

I sometimes feel the ’it’s cool to hate’ ethos has permeated every segment of our lives, we live in a world of fear, uncertain economic climate, the bombardment of information and commercialism at every turn. At times it feels understandable how so many of us are resentful, scared and apathetic in life and love.

Love. It’s such a big word that if we let it, loses all meaning. That is until you let it really touch you. Until you allow yourself to feel love, to be loved. To look at the world and smile, for no reason other than you can and that you can appreciate even the tiniest of things in life. To me, that’s a big part of love, allowing it to affect you in however small a form.

More and more now, I allow myself to feel love and I appreciate the reminders of how important it is. Below I have posted the words not of Martin Luther King, but of song, perhaps more easily accessible, from someone else who was in the search of love and peace. Perhaps it is a crude comparison from a pop star to a great preacher and civil rights activist, but one I’m willing to make.

Thank you for reading this

Love – John Lennon

Love is real , real is love
Love is feeling , feeling love
Love is wanting to be loved

Love is touch, touch is love
Love is reaching, reaching love
Love is asking to be loved

Love is you
You and me
Love is knowing
we can be

Love is free, free is love
Love is living, living love
Love is needed to be loved