“I have a lot of commitments this week”, is a phrase we use when we are facing a busy week. It says, “I am really busy, so I have little time for anything else. My time is taken up with things I have committed to.” But is it about “busyness” or “commitment”?
I found myself thinking about the nature of “commitment”, and what I am committed to and why, when I read an extract from a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. It’s in his powerful, challenging, rhetorical style. This is what he said:
“I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I’d like somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry…I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness…I just want to leave a committed life behind.”
Chris Dawson