Happy MLK
Day! I realize I have a few posts that
need continuation, but I wanted to honor a great man today. Thanks for reading, and to view last year’s MLK
post, click here.
Don’t be a Hater!
During
the first week of school I was taking a sip of coffee from my Pittsburgh
Steelers coffee cup when one of my students decided to use that moment to
introduce me to his favorite team.
Bastien: “The
Steelers suck.”
Mr. Lin: “Thanks for your opinion, but we don’t
use that word in my classroom. I take it
you’re a Ravens fan?”
Bastien: “Yup. And I hate the Steelers.”
I
figured this much, since the Ravens are the arch rivals of the Black and Gold. Then, when the Steelers lost to the Ravens in late
November, he used this opportunity to try and provoke a response:
Bastien: “Haha,
Steelers lost. We beat you!”
Mr. Lin: “Yeah,
it was a great game… the Ravens played really well.”
Bastien: “You’re
not mad we beat you guys?”
Mr. Lin: “Honestly, I cheered for the Ravens
last year during the playoffs once the Steelers lost. I really like their style of play. I know it’s a rivalry, but it’s just a game.”
Bastien: “Yeah,
but we’re rivals! We hate each other!”
Mr. Lin: “Yeah, but if I find myself cheering
against a team I know my life is consumed by hate. I’d rather just cheer for my team. I’d rather my life have more love in it than
hate.”
I hoped those words would resonate in him…
The Power of Love
Often
lost in the recounting of the Civil Rights movement is the ground-breaking way
that it was carried out. Yes, we may
know the theory behind civil disobedience and peaceful resistance, but do we
truly understand how difficult it must have been to carry out? After all, it is far more intuitive to think
about exacting revenge and to allow our hate to engulf us than to love. But, as Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently
states,
“I have decided to stick to love...Hate
is too great a burden to bear.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
On
this Martin Luther King Day, I want to recognize a great man who understood that
hate was a burden. This man realized
that that it’s consuming nature is far more destructive to its owner than to
anyone it might be directed towards. Because
of Dr. King’s great leadership, a nation found that love is a far more
powerful and effective weapon than hate.
A 10-year old boy
In a
world where sports have become more important in our daily lives than God and country,
families and friends are often divided along team allegiances. Many carry the hate of another team more
strongly than their love for their own team. I recall an encounter a few months ago with an
Orioles fan who angrily told me he could not bring himself to cheer for the
Yankees, even if a Yankee victory was necessary for his team to make it to the
playoffs. I wonder… how much does
resentment affect his life? In what other
areas does it manifest itself?
As
an educator, I’m determined to teach the lessons that we aren’t required to
teach. I know these lessons are the ones
that are of greater importance to one’s overall satisfaction with life than
being able to write eloquent essays or perform computation that most adults use
calculators for. I pray each day for my
students to see that life success is beyond academics and money. I pray that their lives will be filled with
love, and not by hate.
When
the playoffs began two weeks ago, the Ravens were in the playoffs and the
Steelers had not. Bastien and I
exchanged words once again:
Bastien: “Sorry
your Steelers didn’t make it this year.”
His
normally jestful eyes were thoughtful and genuine.
Mr. Lin: “Yeah,
it kinda stinks. Oh well… I’ll be
cheering for the Ravens. It would be
great for Ray Lewis to go out with a ring.”
Bastien: “Yeah,
it would be.”
When
the Ravens square off against the San
Francisco
Let no debt remain outstanding, except
the continuing debt to love one another – Romans 13:8a
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