The Parable of the Street Sweeper: An Impetus for Excellence

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of those rare personalities who influenced the world so much that their names have become synonymous with a cause. Through his complete commitment to civil rights activism and the evangelism of non-violence, he inspired a whole generation to believe in the possibility of dreams once thought impossible. 

With unrivalled eloquence, Dr. King encouraged people of colour suffering social and economic injustice to keep believing and persuaded their oppressors to join them in peaceful brotherhood. He believed that "we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Thus, Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." 

Of course, not everyone agreed with him. He was imprisoned and threatened many times. On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had gone to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated. 

This year, like each one after his death, the world reflected on the life and legacy of Dr. King. I am sure you have seen a couple of tweets and posts about him here and there. I have been reading some of his writings and listening to his speeches over the past week and just when I think I have found a favourite speech another one, more spellbinding, pops up. 

Perhaps, you have heard or read the famous I Have A Dream or I've Been To The Mountaintop speeches. Notwithstanding, I want to share with you another message he delivered as eloquently as only he could. It's a relatively lesser-known speech he delivered to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia. In that speech, Dr. King rallied the students present, as well as you and me, to pursue excellence. Here's the excerpt that did it for me:

When you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don’t just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

Wow! I'll let you reflect on that and wait for your comments. 

Cheers.