MLK Day 2024
I love words.
Sometimes, in the hours before sunrise, I lay in bed with my eyes closed and say some of my favorite words over and over again - kindness, serendipity, beauty, plain, genius, simple, wonder, ordinary, courage, human.
They are my comfort and joy as I prepare to give myself to the world as a teacher and a writer.
When I was a boy, I carried an old copy of Webster’s dictionary in my back pocket.
If I had moments during the day when I was still and silent I opened it and read a page and learned new words that I never knew or ever used before.
One day, I learned the word ‘akimbo.’
It’s an adverb that means hands on the hips with elbows turned outward.
I can use it in a sentence this way - “I stood akimbo in front of my students after Christian launched a paper airplane that flew all the way across the classroom.”
Sanctuary is my word for today.
The most important paper I wrote at UNC Chapel Hill was about the Sanctuary Movement.
Have you heard of it?
It was an underground railroad that helped protect refugees fleeing from violence in Central America in the 1980.
American citizens opened the doors of their churches and synagogues to those refugees and offered them a caring, safe place to stay while they were being pursued by people who wanted to deport them.
The movement is still alive (and giving life) today.
I love the idea of offering my life and work to help and protect others.
I love the idea of opening my heart as a sanctuary.
I love the idea of being a sanctuary in the world.
I love the idea of being a sanctuary for you.
Kind of like MLK was.
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