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Monday, January 17, 2011

Martin Luther King, Jr., and creativity


Today, I am celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. While reading quotes by him this morning, I was interested to discover several that dealt with creativity:

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

We must use time creatively.

This made me think about how much King must have valued creativity. Perhaps not in the sense of the arts, but as a form of critical problem solving, a way of finding new solutions. (Which is also what artists do when they are being creative.)

Certainly King showed creativity in his push for civil rights. You can see it in his choice of protests and approaches, and in his glorious use of language in his sermons and speeches. 

I will finish this brief post with one of my favorite King quotes:

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” 

Today, let us all make that same decision: let’s stick with love.