Fulfillment in Unfulfilled Dreams
I will focus on the reading which was
perhaps my favourite one among the ones assigned to us. It is the “Unfulfilled
Dreams” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK). I will then relate it my
experience during the current lockdown.
The most compelling thing about MLK speech
was that it takes attention away from the fact of completion and brings it back
to the way towards completion. He talks about the fact that one’s struggle is
enough, for that is what matters. For while there is struggle, there is
possibility of change. This means that he takes account of the hazards, the
unpredictability, and the inevitable tragedy of life. And I think that this
ultimately means an acceptance of your fellow human, since it also accepts the
possibility, even probability, of mistakes. But at the same time it affirms
what we have been studying in the course – the tragic stature of the human.
That it can be said that the world may trample and the sea of troubles may
drown them, but while they were alive they never faltered. And I am reminded of
a passage from Shelley’s Prometheus Bound:
“To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
And that seems to me MLK’s resonance. It
is hope, not that one might achieve the end, but that one might become better.
It is hope in oneself for oneself which can create “the thing it contemplates”,
for change occurs as one tries to be better. It is a great burden, but MLK’s
suggests that this is a burden altogether worthy of us for it is a burden that
depends on our own ability. This means that it requires apprehension of one’s
own ability. And that is another great thing about it: by making one focus on one’s
own struggle it makes one introspect and “set [one’] heart right”, and at the
same time it tells them that there is something bigger. In this way it seems to
reconcile the individual with the communal.
This may sound odd, but I think this has
been important to me during the current times of the corona. With a lot of
academic work piling up and its completion seeming an impossibility, there was
a time of self-criticism and loss of faith in myself. I couldn’t seem to do even
a part of what was required, let alone the whole of it. What made me move was
the relaxation of expectation of ending the work, and the encouragement to do
whatever I could. Not only did it make me take measure of my ability but also
to be kind to myself. It made me recognise the extraordinary nature of the
times. And I think it is as necessary to the idea of an ‘unfulfilled dream’ to know
the arduousness of the task, or here, the very strange and challenging
circumstances. One must know one’s limitedness, or that the house one is
building might not be finished, that the lockdown is a limiting time, that the
stress is almost unbearable. It is an acknowledgment which makes possible the process of struggle. Plus, I felt that there was sympathy and love
behind this encouragement (shown by some instructors), as there is behind MLK’s ideas. It accepts one’s
limits, and encourages one to do as much as one can. There is comfort in that,
but not the kind which may take the sight away from the task. It reminds me of a line I read somewhere by
Rabbi Tarfon: “You are not obliged to complete the work, but neither are you
free to desist from it”. It is an honest acceptance which must be honestly repaid.
Of course, to truly gain a sense of the
extent it has influenced me or to delineate truly what it means for me would
require more time, thought, and action. But, still I think that the philosophy surrounding "Unfulfilled Dreams" is something which has come very near my heart.
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