Think About It

          Not long ago I was looking at the top of my desk and it looked like it was snowing yellow papers.   Scattered around my desk were several old sticky notes as well as old letters, books, a Diet Coke bottle and several bottle caps.   While I have never the been the neatest person in the world, one of the places this had become the most notable was on my desk.   The reason this caught my attention was a quote that I had seen from Audrey Thomas, “Clutter is a result of delayed decisions.”.   I had heard a lot of adages about clutter – everything from it being a sign of genius to it being a symbol of disarray, but as I reflected on her observation I got to thinking how true it was.   The reason for most of the clutter wasn’t (necessarily) that I was messy, it was that I just hadn’t followed through with what needed to be done with the items.   I hadn’t returned this phone call, I hadn’t filed that   letter, I hadn’t finished that book.   My messy desk was the result of my procra

          It is hard for me to believe that it was over fifty years ago that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.   There are fewer and fewer of us who recall April 4, 1968; but it is a day that has had an impact on our nation.   It might be nice if we could say that the life of Dr. King completely galvanized a nation – but, that wouldn’t be true because even the impassioned words of the man often fell on some deaf ears.   Wouldn’t it be great to say that Dr. King’s death brought us all together in unity, but alas, that would be fantasy as well because even decades after his death we still struggle with racial inequity, bigotry and division.   In some ways it might be disappointing to say that the life, death and philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. has returned empty, but thankfully that isn’t true either.   We have not built a perfect edifice of peaceful co-existence on the foundation of the Civil Rights movement from Dr. King’s era, but we are making progress.   No, we are n