Event Blog 5

It is always hard relating a story that took place years ago to more recent written stories. This is because times have changed dramatically. By listening to the reflection on The Letter of Birmingham Jail and also reading Bharati Mukherjee “A Father,” Stephanie Shapiro “Serving up Hope,” Richard Hague, “Directions for Resisting the SAT,” and Gary Gildner, “First Practice,” I surprisingly found a connection. A connection between making a difference, dealing with a difference and overcoming a difference.

I actually attended two different lectures that discussed feedback on The Letter of Birmingham Jail. Both in which gave me more knowledge on the letter that I had not picked up upon when first reading it.

First comparing the way Martin Luther King relates his writing to Theology. King describes it as an opening of a womb that needs to be healed. Similar to the way Jesus struggled. He describes his time in jail as a long process, just like everything in life, times heals it. Throughout his letter, King compares his thoughts to many theologians and philosophers.

Next, more importantly, King speaks about morning. He summarizes that morning is a healthy response to loss. And more deeply entering melancholia - an unhealthy pathological response to loss, unable to replace loss. King’s letter is the melancholia kind and also the morning kind. He states “One day the south will know..” And what King means by this is that what the South has lost now will never be replaced. King in this case speaks of his knowledge that will letter help the South, but they are yet to know it.

Both of these examples of the way in which speaks in his letter were presented in the events I went to. These events made it clear and also summarized the most important facts in King’s letter. But most of all they emphasized how much of a change King made although nothing came out of it. We are living proof that King is a legend. Later, at the end of the event we found out that the clergymen King had wrote to never even made a change. Things remained the same. King still didn’t give up.

Relating what I learned about King’s letter to “A Father” by Bharati Mukerjee, was all about connecting relationship. The relationship between a father and a daughter can be hard to understand sometimes. But it is also a relationship that has much power and much love. Although during “A Father” there is a feuding relationship between a father and a daughter, I believe it shows love. Love that people are willing to fight for. Just like the reason King wrote this letter. His love for the people around him was worth fighting for; therefore he did something about it.

Following I read “Serving up Hope” by Stephanie Shapiro, which brought emotion to my heart. This article was written to show that everyday people can affect the world around us. The little things in life are what we don’t know can make a huge difference. I’m not sure if you can tell, but King’s letter is what made a big difference. We live a much easier life because of some of the things King did throughout his life.

In conclusion I would like to compare King’s letter and my thoughts to “First Practice” by Gary Gildner. This poem helped me relate to my life in a sense. I remember the first days of some of my practices like it was yesterday. My coaches, some different then others, made me nervous. But, there was one in particular that stood out. A man who did not show any sympathy about anything from the start of practice. He was stern and aggressive from the beginning. Just like the coach in this poem and King in the letter. They both share the passion to get something done. The coach would like to win games and King would like to win freedom.