NPR played Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I have a dream” speech this morning while I was in the car, and I drove around a little longer than planned to hear it to the end. It is always a thrill to hear not only for the beauty of it but for the sheer inspiration.  

Though an ordinary man, King took on an extraordinary challenge. It was no less than to lead the entire nation in becoming the America that it was capable of being. (Makes me think, I could ratchet up on “do a good turn daily.”) And he said, “This is no time…, to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” 

He was all in. No excuses. Right now.

It was Martin Luther King who also said, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

And my personal favorite, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

He is simply a one man boot camp for good, doncha think?