Today’s federal holiday to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is not just a bank holiday, but designated as a National Day of Service to make a positive difference. We embrace and remember Dr. King because there have been few individuals in history who have battled injustice, using love, words, and inspiration to make this world a better place. He paid with his life enshrining him as a person to remember and honor as many times year as possible. I include his writings every year at our Passover service, his civil rights lessons are part of our Company’s DNA, and today’s “day of service” can serve as a subtle reminder as Dr. King wrote in his letter from a Birmingham jail that we always should embrace hospitality with love.
On this day that many of us are in-fact working, serving customers in our hospitality practice, bringing a glass of wine or two to our customers, putting on a show, doing what we do, let’s remember our role in the world. The connection we have with all the people around us, the vibe we create can have a little more eye contact, a little more warmth, a little more love as we try and create an experience that is as special as possible in this fragile world. With all the crap out in the world, tragic war in the Ukraine, injustice every day in our cities, human negativity, dumbass politics in the US, and a global environmental crisis, just to name a few, coming into City Winery for a few hours of respite from the chaotic world is chance enjoy life—to indulge your senses.
Let’s take Dr. King’s message and strive to make his dream of a more just and equal society a part of how we serve. While I am referencing serving our customers and not going to today help build the local school, we can support the salient message battling injustice in the tiny steps of our interactions with the people around us in our daily life, in our work today, with the brothers and sisters in our workplace. He wrote, “No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” Or this quote, “Everyone can be great, because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Thank you for being part of our company. While many of you are working today, remember our purpose, our support of customers, performers, and our choice of what we do every day. Embrace your coworkers with love, we have a great team, and we can serve today and everyday making the world a better place.
Big hug,
Michael