Wednesday, March 21, 2012

MLK Parsonage

Seeing where Dr. King Jr. lived for a brief time in his life while he was the minister of Dexter Church (I believe) was surreal. To walk in the same kitchen, living room, bedroom etc. was incredible. To know that he had an epiphany in the same kitchen I was in that pushed him to go forth with the Civil Rights Movement made me want to do more with my life. It made me look at my place in history and ask myself "What are you doing to not only better yourself, but to help your fellow peers reach there goals as well?" I whole-heartedly believed that I knew almost everything that could be known about Dr. King Jr., but this experience showed me that my textbooks could never teach me as much as the oral histories of those that knew him personally or were around him on a ono-on-one basis. I am so thankful for everyone that helped make this trip happen (s/o to January) because it has only been 3 or 4 days and we still have so much to see and if we went home today I would still deem this a more than successful trip. Viewing the window that had a bomb thrown through it and knowing that the biggest bomb did not go off, which would have surely killed Dr. King Jr., Coreeta King and their children, did not explode reinforced my faith in my Savior. It showed me that He had plans for MLK and it wasn't his time to die. Being inside the home also gave Dr. King Jr. a more humanistic appeal. Despite his last name he was always a King in my eyes. Reading about him I pictured him about 6'10'' in height because his words and the things he did in his lifetime were so monumental, but being able to understand his life as just a regular guy of a short stature made him seem even greater in my mind. His life, struggles, triumphs and accomplishments shows that despite any challenges you have to go through whatever you put your mind to and that you have a passion for can be achieved.

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