I've fallen, on my last lifeline
There's no way in my right mind

Today we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy - we celebrate through service, through reflection, through re-imagined presentations of his works.

For me, one of the experiences that will always stick with me is visiting the archives of MLK’s works in Atlanta. On display were his original writings, clips of speeches and some mementos from his life. What I will always remember is just how much he wrote. He wrote books, speeches, dissertations. And he gave a sermon every week. Every week he stood up and preached to those who wanted to listen and to a future that no one could yet envision.

And he kept going, and going and going.

These past few weeks, I read through Questlove’s book Creative Quest, given to me my brother as a Christmas present. In our family, books are a common gift, and either come at a time where you’re reflecting on a certain area of your life or it’s a book that the other person really thinks need to be read because you’ll get a lot out of it. As an example, my Mom gave me American Gods as it was becoming a cult following but early enough so that I could decide if it was something that I would delve into myself before TV adaptations and quote excerpts colored my opinion. But that’s a book for another post.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In Questlove’s series of chapters on creativity and collaboration, he walks through topics of inspiration, mentorship, getting started, networking, curating, marketing and dealing with success (or failure) in your creative pursuits. All of these topics would have a much shorter list of examples to draw from had civil rights leaders like Dr. King and others not kept pressing forward to work toward equal rights and opportunities. That in itself is a good reminder. Questlove talks of his relationship with a Spotify playlist-worthy collection of black musicians beyond his own band The Roots - D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, LL Cool J, Erykah Badu, Musiq Soulchild, Jazmine Sullivan, Jay-Z, Donald Glover. Wondering if that list would look the same had MLK and others not persisted is humbling.

There are dozens of quotes I jotted down from the book, and all return to the theme of relentless effort to keep going. Said a different way,

Don’t start stopping.
-Questlove

When we start to hesitate to try something new, when we start to hesitate to explain why something you heard is racist, when we start to hesitate to create another work after receiving criticism, when we start to stop going to that open mic, when we start to stop donating to a candidate or cause we believe in because money is tight this month, when we start to stop encouraging our family to get healthy. when we start to stop taking care of ourselves, when we start to stop looking for the job that utilizes our talents effectively. When we start stopping the little things, because it’s inconvenient or tricky or just hard, then that’s when we fail to honor those who have striven for more before us.

So hopefully today, you took an extra second to get back in touch with a friend, reminded someone that representing or just tried something new.

Make things. Make your way to the things that others have made. Make theories of your own. All the advice in the world won't help if you don't start the perfectly imperfect process of creating.
Don't let the world return to the way it was before.
-Questlove

(The lyrics that opened this post are from the Spider-Man Enter the Spider-Verse song Elevate, the basis for my recent posts.)