As might be expected after more than a decade of writing in this webspace, I’ve commented a few times before on today’s observance in the US. (I probably ought to have done so more times than I did, to be honest.) Still a federal holiday dedicated to the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the observance still implies that the United States is still working towards the realization of the ideals he espoused. It is still the case that I am not the person best-positioned to comment about any of it, even though I do feel some obligation to mark the observance. And it is still the case that I–and many others, but I have no say over their actions, only mine–have not done enough to make things better.

That there is still much to do should be clear. Whether or not there is an “enough” is less so; I tend to think there is not, since it will be “enough” only when all is right, and I doubt I will live to see such a thing, if it ever comes to pass. (I’ve known a few people who would make the case that my living to see it necessarily means it hasn’t come. I’ve mellowed out in my old age, but I’ve not always been the mild and pleasant person I now am; there’ve been people as have professed their hatred of me to me, in voice and in writing. I really ought to have kept some of the latter.) But that’s my viewpoint, not all of which emerges from reason; others’ results may well vary.

What there is to do, for me and for others, is relatively clear, even if present circumstances make its achievement difficult. I know that, given what I have to do on the small scale at which I operate, doing more would be a challenge; I would have to let go of things I want to hold to open my hands such that I could do the work that needs doing (and the verse suggests itself to me: I would have to / Let go of things / I want to hold to / Open my hands / Such that I could / Do the work that needs doing; I don’t know why it does, now.) Doing so would doubtlessly lessen my already-little effectiveness at doing what needs doing on larger scales; how much, I probably overestimate.

I try not to overestimate myself. Though I do well the things I do well, I know that there are others who do more things better than I (and others who are seen to do so, whether rightly or not). To think that I, alone, might accomplish something substantial in such line as King sought is…excessive. Even he did not, being one among many who did such labor. I am not so much a one as he, as I note; what I can do, I do, knowing it is little and not enough.

For holidays such as this, or for even the most mundane of them, writing done to order–and without AI slop–is a fine thing to have; get yours started by filling out the form below.

Or you can send your support along directly!