The Useful, the Courageous, and the Beautiful
Hello readers. With tomorrow being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, (and given how I royally missed this chance last year), I thought I'd take the time to share a special piece for the occasion. First, a brief preamble.
The first bit of money I ever made as a writer came from an essay contest held by my University, when I was a sophomore college student.
I heard about the contest over an email-blast that went out to every student enrolled that semester, and when I first saw it, I didn't think I'd try to enter, as I had a very low opinion of my own writing abilities at the time (and still do somewhat). However, a small thing changed my mind that same day. I was sitting in a large lounge chair on the top floor of the Millennium Student center on North Campus--a part of the school that's usually quiet and devoid of people unless a special event's going on--and I happened to open the Facebook app on my phone.
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| Source: Biography.com |
"To do the useful thing; to say the courageous thing; to contemplate the beautiful thing; that is enough for one man's life."
If you don't recognize that quote, don't feel bad. It doesn't come from one of Eliot's poems. It's from one of his non-fiction works, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism. I'd certainly never come across it in my reading of him at that point, but then again, I'd only read his poetry and not his other works.
As happens sometimes to writers though, the moment I read that quote, something in my head clicked. Suddenly, with that quote as a jumping off point, an idea for an essay came into my head, an answer to the question. I went back to my dorm room, and in two sittings (one for first draft, and one for revision after I'd gotten some feedback from a valued critic), I wrote the essay and submitted it. The worst thing that could happen is I would lose. Even if I did, at least I would've tried.
In the end, I didn't win first place. I won second, and with it $200. Even then though, I was grateful not to win first place because, even though I would've won an extra $100 bucks, I would've also needed to read it aloud to a crowd at the MLK Day Celebration.
Now, seven years later, looking at this piece, I still firmly stand by what it says. I do have a few extra thoughts though, but I'll share those later. If you care to read it, here is the piece in question:
“To do
the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful
thing: that is enough for one man’s life.”
~ T. S.
Eliot
T. S. Eliot, of course, in stating this, was doing so in reference to the aims of poets and critics—to use their words and the writings they craft with them to achieve these goals. However, the words of this statement, when applied to other objectives beyond writing, are just as apt. During the time in American history when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fighting for civil rights, this country was in a state of division, and that division was caused by one thing; the color of a person’s skin. Dr. King was the embodiment of these words written by this great poet.
Dr. King did a useful thing; he fought for the equality of those who others persecuted for a mere physical characteristic—the color of their skin—that was both unchangeable and thought by many, to make certain people inferior. Through peaceful protest and non-violent philosophy, he sought to move this country closer to the ideal set forward in the opening lines of its Declaration of Independence by advocating the end of all legislatively enforced forms of discrimination.
Dr. King did a courageous thing. He along with thousands of others with him marched to Washington D.C. and stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He spoke what he believed to be the truth beneath the shadow of the statue of President Lincoln. Dr. King spoke of the reality of his time and place in history, but he also spoke of what he believed the future of this country could and should be.
Dr. King contemplated a beautiful thing; He lived in a nation divided, but he saw a future of no division. As he, himself, put it, “The sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
After doing all of this—doing the useful thing, saying the courageous thing, and contemplating the beautiful thing—it seems Dr. King did indeed do enough for one life; a life, as history reminds us, that a killer’s bullet cut tragically short. However, there remain some questions.
Why should we continue to celebrate this particular man? Why should we continue to acknowledge this man one day each year? Why should we continue to remind ourselves of Dr. King’s dream, when, with the reelection of President Obama, we know that much of his dream has come true? The answer is a very simple one. It is the underlying philosophy of everything for which Dr. King stood and worked.
The answer is Hope.
In today’s America, the nation’s economy is in such a state that one could compare it to the Great Depression of the 1930s. In today’s America, Americans are divided, not by “race” but by politics and class. In today’s America, more students are dropping out of high school and are not pursuing higher education because they do not believe there is going to be a better tomorrow. In today’s America, Dr. King’s birthday is now no more than another day off work for many people. Yet, I believe we should continue to celebrate Dr. King, and the underlying reason he kept fighting for what he believed in; we should continue to celebrate Dr. King because of the Hope that he stood for and for which he still stands.
Dr. King did not live to see all the amazing changes that America has experienced, such as the re-election of Barack Obama to a second term as President of the United States of America. Although he hoped that events such as these would one day happen, he did not know if full integration and equal opportunity for people of color would ever be realities. In truth, all that this man could do was hope; he could only hope for a better future, because no one on Earth, as we know has the ability to see what the future holds, although many wish they did. Yet, in spite of all the problems Dr. King and those who followed him faced, they still kept on going; they still kept fighting for what they believed was the right thing, and why did they do that? They did it for one reason: because they had Hope.
In these difficult times, Americans need hope now more than ever. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did what he did to shape the future into what he believed it should be, because he had hope in his heart. This hope of a better future shaped by people of all colors, kept Dr. King going even when it seemed as if things were never going to get better. President Barack Obama, in his 2009 Address to the Joint Session of Congress: put Dr. King’s legacy of hope another way. President Obama said:
“We did not come here to fear the future; we
came here to shape it.”
Looking at this piece now, it occurs to me that we still find ourselves in a harshly divided world, even more so than we were back in 2012-2013 when I wrote this. We've since come to the end of the Obama-era, which led us into the Trump-era, and with it, a culture and society even more fragmented.
What's fragmented us though? Not only racial prejudice, which remains a divisive factor to this day.
Questions of Immigration and Citizenship.
Attacks on Religious Freedom
Renewed battles against Women's Rights.
Assault against the rights of the LGBTQ+ population.
A refusal to accept the truth of the threat of Climate Change.
Refusals to believe fact and evidence based truth of any kind.
And a reassertion of the privileged status of Wealth, through detrimental tax legislation and growing negative attitudes towards education, at the expense and disregard of the Middle-Class and the Poor.
So many wedges exist now that keep this country from true unification, but this country has always managed to uncover methods with which to cope. More than anything, the greatest wedge of all, the one powering and exasperating the others, is the force of Fear. FDR said it best when he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." America's fear is rampant right now, and through all the forenamed means, it is keeping this country from moving forward.
Certain voices exist that wish to use fear—fear of what's different, fear of "the other"—to keep our populace divided. In division of the populace through fear, through growing paranoia, through mistrust, comes greater power for those who seek to divide us.
For that reason alone, we must continue to strive to work towards Dr. King's legacy, and thus continue to celebrate him and the aims he sought to achieve. Above everything else, Dr. King advocated that Love, not Fear, was the way this country must move. I say unequivocally that he was right then, all those years ago, and he remains right today.
We must hope for and, more importantly, work towards a brighter and loving future for all, not merely a few. King's ideal of a world where we judge each other for the "content of their character," is still possible. We merely have to believe it is too and act accordingly. In the words of Dr. King, "We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools."
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