Martin Luther King - The Monday Morning Memo

“…Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind.”

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain.
And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

– Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech in Memphis exactly 40 years ago last week, April 3, 1968. He was murdered the next day.

“Dear Reader,

We wouldn’t need books quite so much if everyone around us understood us well. But they don’t. Even those who love us get us wrong. They tell us who we are but miss things out. They claim to know what we need, but forget to ask us properly first. They can’t understand what we feel – and sometimes we are unable to tell them, because we don’t really understand it ourselves. That’s where books come in. They explain to us ourselves and to others. They explain us to ourselves and to others, and make us feel less strange, less isolated, and less alone. We might have lots of good friends, but even with the best friends in the world, there are things that no one quite gets. That’s the moment to turn to books. They are friends waiting for us anytime we want them, and they will always speak honestly to us about what really matters. They are the perfect cure for loneliness. They can be our very closest friends.”

- Alain de Botton, A Velocity of Being, Letters to a Young Reader, p. 24

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