I Remember Dr. King

Memory is a funny thing. An event comes along and it takes you back, back to other times and other places. On this day when so many of us remember Dr. King I have another memory which seems strangely unrelated. 

My brother and I decided to take a cruise. We'd never done this together and we planned this trip. There were many things that I recall from that time together.  But on the ship every night there would be Karaoke in a darkened theatre. That first night we wandered into to that room that was full of people waiting, waiting. Like most Karaoke events some of those folk before the mike should have stayed in the audience. But there was a pause and someone said: "We want Bill to sing." Others picked up the chant: "We want Bill and we want him to sing: "I Believe I can Fly." And so this middle age man with thinning hair stepped up to the mike, cleared his  throat and began to sing. A hush fell across the audience. Even the servers taking drink orders stopped. And somewhere I heard someone sobbed. And people in the audience began to hum and then began to sing along with Bill: "I believe I could fly..." Every night we would go back to that theatre and without fail someone would yell, "We want Bill to sing and we want him to sing: "I believe I can fly." And sing he did: 

 "I used to think that I could not go on

And life was nothing but an awful song

But now I know the meaning of true love

 I'm leaning on the everlasting arms.

                                         +         +       +      +      +

I believe I can fly I believe I can touch the sky

I think about it every night and day

Spread my wings and fly away 

I believe I can soar

I can see me running through that open door

I believe I can fly

I believe I can fly

I believe I can fly..."

It's what we all want, isn't it? To believe despite the harshness of life and so many things wrong that somehow we will make it through despite the strictures of life because we really do believe we can fly.

The song was so popular in 1997 that it was number two on the Billboard charts for six weeks. The song went all the way to top the charts in eight countries. The Rolling Stones said it was one of the 500 Greatest Songs of all time.

And today as we pause to remember Dr. King's birthday I thought of this song. Underneath it all Dr. King kept this strong faith that all of us are in this together.  Old birds and young birds. All kinds of birds small and large. No one was left out.

That dream is still with us and on this day my prayers for this tattered country and broken world we really can hang on. Because of what kept Dr. King going and all those others was that longing: "We shall overcome, We shall overcome one day...".

And so on this day I remember the song, I remember my late brother singing it all the way home and I remember that darkened theater when we all sang together: "I believe I can fly."

                                               photo courtesy of Meriwether Lewis Elementary School / flikr 

                                           --Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com