dual personalities

Lord…
We thank you for your church, founded upon your Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray,
but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon you.
Help us to realize that humanity was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.
Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace.
Help us to walk together,
pray together,
sing together,
and live together
until that day when all God’s children
– Black, White, Red, Brown and Yellow –
will rejoice in one common band of humanity
in the reign of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.
– The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Today we remember the tragic event that happened 50 years ago, the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Bells will toll at places of worship, college campuses and institutions 39 times across the nation “to honor the number of years Dr. King dwelled on this earth and to pay homage to his legacy.” Oddly, I see no mention of this on our cathedral’s website–only a link to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

I do not have many memories of this event. I was in the sixth grade and not terribly clued in to current events. I remember that it was our father’s birthday and we were focused on that. He turned 46. A pall was thrown over the day, much as a pall was thrown over daughter #1’s birthday years later on September 11 in 2001. The world intrudes.

My father had many shortcomings, but he was a gentleman of the old school. He treated everyone the same; he was kind and courteous, regardless of race, color or creed. I try to be like that as well. There is certainly not enough kindness or courtesy around these days.