Hello Creative people!
Happy Martin Luther King Day!
Today we celebrate the life of one of the worlds greatest children by honoring him on around his birthday (it was the 15th, but we celebrate on the 3rd Monday of every Jan out of convenience). King was a great man of color who indeed saw the harsh shades that divided our world, but, in a time when it would have been all to easy to choose a side, decided that he would make a stand – nonviolently – for all humanity.
Indeed the very quest for equality and civil rights in America, for people of all ethnicities (a quest which survives to this very day), can find its roots buried deep in the fertile soil of Dr.Kings actions throughout life. So – needless to say – as far as this blog is concerned, I can think of no better person to honor; for his beautiful vision of man-kinds collective peaceful future, his steadfast resiliency in the face of extreme opposition in the past, and his contagious creativity which inspires even today (heck, it inspired me to write this very blog), than the late, great, Dr.Martin Luther King.
“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better” ~Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.
Can you feel it good creative types? You should. He’s talking to you. I’ve always known that the road to happiness (for more on that see yesterday’s blog), is paved by creativity, and traveled along by means of the subsequent expression of it. So it only stands to reason that when you dedicate yourself to something as noble as creativity, you will, almost always, find a way to better the world. Dr.King did. Often. On many occasions Dr.King stood up for what he believed in. Not with knives, or guns, or high-tech sharks with frickin’ lasers on their heads, but rather, with his words, and with his creativity.
“Human Salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted” ~ MLK
Now if that one doesn’t just plumb speak so near and dear to my crazy creative soul, than I can’t figure what ever would. He’s talking here to those of us who sometimes – just don’t get it. Traditional society that is. I myself, am guilty of the crime. I’m about to get personal here good creative people, you might want to get that mouse-a-hovering over that little “X” up at the top right side of the screen before I say this… I, as odd as this may seem to some of you, am that rare breed of man – the sasquash if you will, or nessie – who doesn’t get involved with sports.
I KNOW! Crazy right? I just don’t. They don’t hold my interest. Never have. I can play sports; now that’s great fun. I even wrestled for a good number of years, and I’m a huge advocate of that. I just can’t seem to get absorbed in them like so many of my friends and family can. If I were being honest with myself; I probably rationalize the situation too much. I cant figure out why I would ever want to dedicate so much of my time and effort into learning something that has no real standing on an intellectual level (not to mention something that changes every season)… So I simply don’t. When i try, at a friend’s place or on festive occasions, I find myself longing for the computer in the back room, where I can learn something, enrich myself, and grow as a person.
Some would say I’m maladjusted. As a matter of fact, all throughout my life, they have. But do I care? Heck no. I would say (and I do), that it frees up more of my time to work on my creative endeavors. I don’t need to feel like one of the gang to survive, i don’t need to feel like i belong – I know that I’m one of the gang, and that I’m valuable, I know that i belong, and that, as they say, is that. Dr. King knows what I’m talking about :).
Good people of creativity, embrace your differences: in the end it’s what makes your perspective, and your condition, something that’s worthy of sharing. Dr.King could have let the shade of his skin define who he was, a definition that he had no chance to change at the time, but he refused to be defined, he refused to be lumped into an “everybody else category”, and I don’t care if your Black, White, Asian, Spanish, European, Samoan, or purple with yellow polka-dots, that’s a message that’s worth your time to heed, and incorporate into your day-to-day life.
As always my awesome creative following, stay happy, stay healthy, stay different, and be you. At the end of the day, your creativity, and unique nature will be what defines you, and, if you’ve done your job, that will be the best legacy you could ever hope for.
Check out Jay Smooth’s 2008 dedication video to Dr.King below for more inspiring King Quotes, and remember to subscribe to the blog so that you always know when a new post has come out. You can also check out Jay Smooth’s website (as I’ve got to give his video some of the credit for my inspiration to write this blog today), and he can be found @ www.illdoctrine.com. The guy does good work, and you should check him out.
Anyway, that’s all from me today. If you have any traits that make you stand out from the crowd, please share them with the class in the comments below.
Happy MLK day!
~J
JaredBlakeDiCroce 