Last week Whit was home with strep for a couple of days. At one point he and I were at the grocery store and he was sitting quietly in the cart in line, his pajama-ed legs sticking through the holes in the cart, his scar still fresh on his forehead. I smiled at the cashier as she began to ring me up. Suddenly we both heard Whit singing softly to himself, “I see skies of blue … clouds of white … and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”
The cashier caught my eye and I saw that hers were shiny with tears. I leaned down and kissed Whit’s blond head and whispered to him, “I love you.” In the car I asked him why he was singing that, and he told me that kindergarten was singing it in the school’s Martin Luther King assembly on Friday.
And it is, in fact, of course, a wonderful world. I hear that the parents of the 9 year old who was tragically killed in Tucson donated her organs, and my heart swells with gladness (organ donation? an important cause to me). But then I read Jo’s post and am struck by how much work we still have to do.
Last year I posted these excerpts from MLK’s famous speech, which I make a practice of reading in full on this day every year. I recommend you do too: his words remain immensely powerful to this day.
…I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream….
…one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers….
…This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
Martin Luther King, August 28, 1963
Happy MLK day, I’ve read several of his quotes today, and agree, his words resonate powerfully (still!) today. My 6th grade teacher made us memorize King’s I Have a Dream speech. As much as I hated memorizing it at the time, I’m grateful now, so many years later, I can still recall chunks of it by memory.
And yes, I teared up today, too, a welling up feeling, “what a wonderful world.”
I believe his words are crafted with emotion and inspiration. I still get chills listening to his “I Have A Dream” speech.
The song “It’s a Wonderful World” has a special place in my heart – it was our wedding song.