*The title of this post is attributed to my friend Amelia's facebook status.
On a more serious note, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I wanted to muse a little bit on both his legacy and one of my favorite quotes of his:
"We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope."
Of course MLK was a prolific speaker, and their are so many quotes from his speeches, writings, and elsewhere that have been inspirational.
The above has always stood out to me, however, in it's applications. I can extend it to my personal life, although of course Dr. King was speaking in the larger and admitedly more significant context of the Civil Rights struggle.
But yes, I myself struggle sometimes dealing with the sometimes larger, sometimes petty disappointments of my own life. So to juxtapose that against the "bigger picture" (infinity!) reminds me to maintain perspective.
As a nation it is sometimes easy to lose hope as well. Especially when recent events like the Ferguson protests remind us that we have so far to go when it comes to full civil rights and racial equality. But when looking at the bigger picture, we have come along was from Selma.
Martin Luther King, Jr. lost his life in pursuit of his dream, but he never lost "infinite hope." And even with all of the finite disappointments we face, both as a society and as individuals, MLK's dream and his infinite hope live on.
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