One
My Dear People,
"We are tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, and whatever effects one directly effects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God's universe is made; this is the way it is structured."
Dr. King delivered these words in his last Sunday sermon, which was given at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., just before his return to Memphis.
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Yes, that's right: inescapable mutuality.
When you are diminished, I am diminished. When I am built up, you are built up.
When you have been shown kindness, I have been shown kindness. When I have been insulted, you have been insulted.
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Which is to say, the concept of the individual is fine, as far as it goes.
But only as far as it goes.
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As the Zulus say, "A person is a person through (other) persons."
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This day, and each day, may we each know more deeply and fully and truly the oneness that we share with one another, and that we share with all God's children. It is a oneness that is stronger than any hatred, or arrogance, or illusion, or confusion, that would divide us. It is our destiny, this oneness.
Indeed, we were born for it: I in You, and You in Me.
One.
Your brother in Christ,
Wallace+
