Pediatric medicine regularly involves decorating the child’s room. Children are responsive to cheerful environment; it promotes healing. Admitted or ignored, the same applies to adults. Dr. King brought us hope by teaching us to see the beauty of the promised land around us.

 Did Dr. King dispense decorations? Problems worsen if they are decorated over. No, he was not a soothsayer promising panacea. His hope-filled message was dynamic and arduous. To see the promised land around us, we had to create it within ourselves. We were able to do it.

 Recall the story of the teacher who offered students roses. When the students noted flaws (dirt, dead leaves, thorns), the teacher took off the offending parts and gave them to the students. They deserved and received what they chose to perceive. Some people watch the news and learn how many people were killed in Chicago recently. Others spend time searching the internet for service opportunities. Which one lives in a more beautiful world?

 Official police departments need to study murder statistics. I do not; that does not impinge on my life. Because I am aware that some of my friends have special needs, helping the disadvantaged does impinge on my life. Sensational calamity is not my lifeline of hope; neighborhood kindness is. Citing morbid statistics does not encourage; it is not beauty. Accomplishing improvements within my power does encourage. It takes my attention away from a negative condition and directs it to beauty. Echoing previous blogposts, this makes me feel needed.

 I call on all my readers to turn off the negative signals—to block out empty complaints—and instead pursue the promised land. If we are looking at the good we are about to do, we are surrounded by beauty.

 You make the world beautiful.

Photo: Picjumbo

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