It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality.
Did you ever stop to think that you can't leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that's handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that's given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that's poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that's poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you're desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that's poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that's given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half of the world.
This is the way our universe is structured. It is its interrelated quality. We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Ebenezer Baptist Church
Atlanta, Georgia
December 24, 1967
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Mutuality = reality. The truth of this is experienced in education, business and the professions, and our personal lives. I appreciate Dr. King's cogent reflection (parts of which are repeated from his other remarks and writings) today more than ever before. I honor him and his memory with the republication of his meaningful words here on the holiday that celebrates his life and legacy. May he rest in peace knowing these words continue to be heard.
[Should you want to listen to the entire Christmas Eve sermon from which the quoted words were taken, one of several online recordings can be found here.]