Martin Luther King

I had the day off yesterday for Martin Luther King Day. I'm going to call him MLK because we're good friends. Is it just me or was MLK an amazing guy? Here was a guy living in Atlanta, in the middle of some of the worst racial tension since the Jews called the Samaritans half-bloods and he preaches love and equality. He leads people in a non-violent revolution of sorts and significantly changes the landscape of the entire South. I live in the South now and although I see remnants of racial prejudice (and other types of prejudice, of course), black and white people live together pretty well from what I can see. There will always be problems with society until we get rid of all the humans, but things have improved significantly in that arena in the last 50-60 years.



King got some of his inspiration from Mohandas Gandhi. My wife and I watched the movie "Gandhi" a few months ago and we loved it! I bought his autobiography and I'm excited to read it. Gandhi got some of his inspiration from Leo Tolstoy, particularly from his book "The Kingdom of God is Within You." I've read everything of Tolstoy's that I could find. His later works are brilliant. I highly recommend "Confession" and "What Then Must We Do." Tolstoy has become my favorite author. Tolstoy received some of his inspiration from Henry David Thoreau, particularly his short essay entitled "Civil Disobedience," an excellent work. I've also read everything I could find from Thoreau. He's a close second to Tolstoy on my list.

I love to read. I could write more listing some of my favorite works and authors, but I'll get to them some other time. For now, I'm hoping to learn more about Gandhi and King. Happy Birthday, MLK.