Taken on the march from Selma to Montgomery, I love how this photo showcases deep and diverse bonds of camaraderie forged while striving for justice. The friendship of Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel (two of the good folk in this photo) continues to inspire me; so, I added a quote to the photo by Heschel that he shared after MLK’s assassination and also added a phrase I believe is core to both of their lives. I hope that you too have been or might yet be inspired by their connection!
And considering interrelationality and mutuality, as King now famously offered in June 1965 during his commencement address for Oberlin College: “…What we are facing today is the fact that through our scientific and technological genius we’ve made of this world a neighborhood. And now through our moral and ethical commitment we must make of it a brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers – or we will all perish together as fools. This is the great issue facing us today. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone. We are tied together… All i’m saying is simply this: that all mankind is tied together; all life is interrelated, and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be wht you ought to be until I am what I ought to be – this is the interrelated structure of reality. John Donne caught it years ago and placed it in graphic terms: ‘No man is an island, entire or itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…’ And then he goes on toward the end to say: ‘any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.’ And by believing this, by living out this fact, we will be able to remain awake through a great revolution.”
And so Martin Luther King Jr’s thoughts cause us to query ourselves: who are we connected with? Who are we disconnected from? Am I and are you remaining awake through the great revolutions of our day?