Aloha!

It’s time for Monday books and today is a special one. It’s 1/18, the day that we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and remember his legacy.

Like all people in the US, my life has been shaped by Dr. MLK. My father came to the US in 1959. He was 24 years old and a medical doctor. Dad chose UC Berkeley and obtained his PhD in biophysics. He quoted Dr. King’s I Have a Dream speech when we were kids and he had a black and white poster of King on the door of his lab across from Einstein’s.

When I was in the third grade, I went to the library, made a copy of the speech and neatly stapled it into a piece of red construction paper and presented it to him for his birthday. In many ways, Dad believed the American Dream and he lived it.

On this day I would like to recommend the writer and poet Audre Lorde’s The Master’s Keys Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House.

Lorde writes with clarity, beauty and ferocity. She reminds us that yes, if we dare to live bravely, we can change the world. So on this day, I ask you to live with all the bravery you can summon and honor the legacy of the leaders who have shown us how to do this, and yes, dream that you can and believe in yourself. You can do this. And when you do this, others will follow.