the autobiography of martin luther king, jr.

since i am not cool enough to know how to post a list of what i am reading (see pretty much any previous entry for a lengthy discourse on my technical inadequacies), here it is. it's not a real autobiography, but a collection of his writings put together in biographical form. which makes sense since he was murdered before having a chance to get around to writing about his life. i picked it up off the "black history month" display at my local library.

sidebar: i understand why some things must be different in other countries, like money, time changes, etc. but why do we do things different that aren't necessary and just make things that little bit harder. take black history month...february in the states and october in the u.k...why would we do that? also, writing the date...day-month-year in the states...month-day-year here. and don't even get me started on paper and hole punches. i mean really.

anyway, the book is blowing my mind. MLK writes about the challenge of coming from an evangelical background that was all about "taking things on faith" rather than examining things critially using intelligence and the way philosophy and political knowledge helped him develop his theology that lead him to the actions we all celebrate. it made me think of how relevant his development and conclusions may be to all those post moderns out there wrestling with "what is church" and all that stuff. but i am most interested in the way he combined ghandhi with christianity. i am on a slipperly slope right now with islam and christianity. i don't talk about it too much, because i don't want to cause anyone else to struggle or get a lecture on how dangerous it is to go down that road. but i am coming to believe there is a real case to be made that our similarities are more than our differences. i concede that jesus is a big difference, though. but i really feel this book, and moreover the life journey of MLK gives support to my asking the questions.

if you are looking for a way to personally celebrate black history month, i highly recommend it. if you aren't looking for a way to personally celebrate black history month, you should be. if you are american, keep this in mind for february.