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It's Martin Luther King Day. Every time I think of Martin Luther King, I am reminded of a short passage in Coming of Age in Mississippi, the autobiography of Anne Moody. Before I get to the passage, though, I have to admit I'm flirting with disaster here. Anne Moody was an active participant as America's black people struggled, fought, and suffered their way to the freedom that was promised 100 years earlier. The disaster I'm flirting with is that Moody's words don't shine the brightest light on King's "I Have a Dream" address. Here they are:

By the time we got to Lincoln Memorial, there were already thousands of people there. I sat on the grass and listened to the speakers, to discover we had "dreamers" instead of leaders leading us. Just about every one of them stood up there dreaming. Martin Luther King went on and on talking about his dream. I sat there thinking that in Canton we never had time to sleep, much less dream.

Those words were published in 1968. I do not know if it was before or after King was murdered. Nor do I know if Moody has written or said anything about King since. To say King was not a person of action would be an ignorant statement. Perhaps Moody was simply one of the few who was not moved by that speech.

I'm not old enough to have seen the South that King and Moody knew. Through the lens of 40 years, it is hard for me to imagine what I have read and heard. And at the same time, I see that there is much work still to be done. I am inspired by King's speech. I have an audio file of it that I play on occasion. But I am more inspired by Moody's book.

The idea today is this: It is important to dream, but it is just as important to act on the things that give us purpose and passion. Do whatever it is you have to do so that you can dream, and empower yourself to act on the things that are going to make a difference. Avoid the beat down where petty and unimportant things cloud your day, taking all time away from both dreaming and acting. I don't want to sound preachy, but your members deserve it. And so do you, your staff, and, for that matter everyone else.