Artist as Outlaw: MLK and the Strength to Love

I’ve been thinking a lot about meaning lately. What it is to live a life of meaning and intention and purpose. Life is short…but art is long. Love is long. Our expressions of what we’re passionate for can live long past our own existence. These expressions are what I refer to as HeArtwork. I am coming to believe more and more that the creation of the varieties of HeArtwork is what gives life meaning. It’s what makes it worth living. For some this HeArtwork can come out visually… drawings, paintings, sculpture. And for others, the essence of their HeArtwork is in the spoken, sung, or written word.

Whatever form it takes we can’t help but be moved by it. It speaks some truth, some unique perspective, that had previously been lying in the shadows…unspoken but felt. HeArtwork brings light to the shadows, and speaks truths that are needing heard.

Martin Luther King Jr might not be who we think of when someone talks about an Outlaw Artist. We think of our eccentric artists and rebellious rockstars. But MLK was a HeArtwork artist… and an outlaw through that expression.

Martin knew the power of words. His father was a preacher. Martin Senior was a man that grew up witnessing many traumatic events. Growing up in the South he experienced the ultimate horrors of racism, witnessing the lynching of a black man and other brutal realities of discrimination. Martin Senior’s home life was also traumatic, marred with domestic violence and turmoil. He found sanctuary in church, and later went on to become a minister himself. Martin Luther King Jr. saw his father speak words that would move whole groups of people, filling them with the word of God. He also listened to him speak truths of the injustice and cruelty of racism. His father did not avoid the hard issues. He faced them with a brutal but compassionate honesty, that would go on to influence the direction of Martin Jr’s own life.

Martin Luther King Jr. would become a minister like his father. What started with congregations at church would later grow into an entire social-political movement. He spoke against the injustices of segregation and discrimination. He spoke against the inequality of a system that benefitted the few over the many. He decried the horrors of war and spoke impassionedly about the power of peace. He also implored his audience to not become bitter by the injustice of the world. He preached a message of love, even for those that had hate in their hearts. This message was met with sometimes violent aggression from a system reluctant to change. But it was also unpopular with people who thought MLK too soft to lead a movement they believed required a more forceful approach. Despite the pressure from both sides of the political spectrum, Martin spoke truths that many had been waiting to hear. And the more he spoke, the more people began to listen. His entire adult life would be spent inspiring large groups of people with the power of his words.

But Martin knew words had other kinds of power.

He knew the violence that words could create. How the right-wrong words put together could inspire anger and hate. He knew that groups of people could be moved to cause terrible harm to another based on the power of words. Words could also create legal barriers, preventing equality of treatment for entire segments of people with the swipe of a pen.

The paradox of powerful things, is their power to do good and harm.
It’s all in how you wield it.

MLK was a radical in a system that resisted change. The truths he spoke were not popular opinions. They not only got him ridiculed by both sides of the political spectrum— those words got him arrested, created a hostile environment for himself and his family, and ultimately ended in his too-soon death.

Although his life ended tragically, through actions of hate and evil, he lived his life with purpose. Every word he used, he used in power. In the power of truth, justice, and Christ-like love. The power of those words has resonated through generations. It has changed the way we live our lives, and see each other. Martin was receiving death threats throughout his time as a Civil Rights leader. He knew the risks involved with speaking these truths and not silencing his voice. Why would he continue?

I believe those that are touched with a gift for HeArtwork, once tuned into that frequency, wouldn’t turn from it even when given the choice. There are some things in this life that are worth living and dying for. Expressing these truths… the truths that bring more beauty, and love, and peace, and light to this wretched/wonderful world… is living as our Creator intended. You, me, them, us…we all have a purpose to be living towards. To be finding and serving with our whole being. I am still figuring out what that means for myself. Seeing the examples and ultimate sacrifice of other HeArtwork artists makes me appreciate the passion by which they lived. It inspires me to own my power, and to honor my purpose.

Because ultimately, I think we all want to live a life of meaning. We want to leave behind a legacy of good for the generations that will come behind us, even if it’s only our own descendents we’re leaving it to. Each goodness ripples into eternity. And we should all be so lucky to leave a legacy like that of Martin Luther King Jr.