Inspired by MLK

I’m participating in a weekly blogging challenge with other educators. This week’s post asks “Inspired by MLK: How will you make the world a better place?” My facile answer is simple: “I teach.” I love my profession, I’m (mostly) good at it, and I respect my students and the responsibility we teachers have for guiding them. Together, we will make the world a better place.

I’d also like to respond with another quote I ran across this week from Napoleon Hill: “If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way.” Such snippets of excellence can inspire huge audiences.

If my own experience as a student/citizen/consumer is any guide, I am inspired by excellence in so many fields beyond my own activities. They need not be huge accomplishments, but even just, for example, a quietly lovely poster, a perfectly scented candle, an elegant app that does one thing precisly as advertised, a passionately-argued legal position, a song that captures my mood in the exact right moment, or a lovingly prepared meal. I may never aspire to draw, make candles, wrrite appls, re-enter legal practice, or compose music, but experiencing small, great things can inspire me to cook that memorable meal.

Today’s FO made my world a warmer, if not a better place. It’s the Hourglass Sweater from Joelle Halvorson’s Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, done in Baby Cashmerino from Debbie Bliss. It’s one of my earliest sweaters, and I have fond memories working on it in such places as Magic Mountain, while chaperoning Senior Activity Day, and in the car on a family road trip to the SF Bay Area. I dislike seaming, so this sweater knit entirely in the round is one of my favorites.