You might not know this, but I am actually a published author.  Yes, it may have been from high school and yes, it was written under duress as a school assignment, but even so it was published.  It’s amazing how those long ago rewards and memories stay with us.

Now, in the same train of thought, I wrote a letter not so long ago and I sent out to lots of friends and family and got quite a bit of positive feedback on how well I wrote.  Again, has stuck with me.

Most of my life, my writing has been in my journals, on scraps of paper as thoughts have followed and then online in 3 or 4 different online journals.  And every once in a while I pull those out and read back a few years or decades, whatever suits the mood at the time.

And every time, my writing elicits not only the feelings that I am sure I was feeling at the time but also embarrassment with “what was I thinking” or awe at “wow, I was brilliant.”  Unfortunately, most of the time its the embarrassment that floods me.

So here I reflect on what tomorrow’s holiday means to me and I think back to those historical moments in my life that might be captured and reviewed by someone else on my passing and I know . . . wow, MLK was a great man.  His writings were continually passionate about peace, equal rights and the direction our country needed to head.

The most recent news about him has been about his children squabbling over the publication of his personal letters, writings and artifacts.  I wonder if they think, like me, that those random scribblings might cause embarrassment and tarnish this very clear image we have of him.  His “I have a dream . . . ” speech is recited and memorized by school children all over the nation.  His image is clear as a strong set on civic disobedience to achieve a greater good for all.

But behind it all, there was a man.  A family man, a man who was once a boy and a man who crossed paths with such organizations as the KKK and Black Panthers whose philosophies differed quite sharply from his own.  I’m sure as he saw the world in a totally different than era than me and with so much political and racial unrest that his private meanderings did at times steer toward the inevitable angry tirade over injustice or desire to do physical harm to those that hurt others.

But what is important when you review a man (or woman) is not those random ramblings that might surface, is not the individual pieces but the collective as a whole.  Martin Luther King stood firmly behind his “I have a dream . . . ” philosophy.  He lived it, he taught it and he inspired it in others, and it has initiated positive change in individuals, organizations, racial groups and our country.  One person can make a difference.

So today’s thought . . . what do you stand for?  What do you want people to remember when you are gone?  And what are you doing about making that memorable?  I definitely need to think about this in my own life.  It’s not a race thing, it’s a personal thing, wherever you are.