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Spirituality
MLK's I Have a Dream: A Great Dose of Hope
A short speech that is packed with hope.
Posted August 28, 2013
Hope is always about one or more of the following: attachment (trust and openness), mastery (higher goals and empowerment), survival (options and fear management), or spirituality (beliefs of empowerment, connection, and assurance, associated with a perceived higher power).
Finding hope in times of darkness requires a transformation in one or more of these character strengths. In my book, Hope in the age of anxiety, I outline a number of strategies for realizing these goals.
One of the sparkplugs that can effect a transformation in hope is inspiration. Inspiration can come from within or from beyond the self. Plato believed that inspiration was a piece of divinity that came bursting into the soul. Philosopher Ignacio Gotz called it “one of the most mysterious moments in anyone's life, the instant when things “click” and fall neatly in place, or a new idea flashes in the dark.” He wrote:
“The mysterious instant goes by many names: inspiration, enlightenment, illumination, intuition, insight, vision, revelation, and discovery… Religious mystics speak of ecstasy and satori; poets, painters, musicians, dancers, and historians invoke their Muses; while scientists and mathematicians, parsimonious and prosaic, claim only hunches and intuitions.”
This week we celebrate fifty years of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream speech”. Anyone who has seen or heard this rhetorical masterpiece cannnot help but come away feeling “moved”, “inspired”, “uplifted”. Half a century has passed since Dr. King delivered his 17 minute call for civil rights. Many have rightly included it among the greatest speeches of the 20th century.
King’s words remind me of another classic speech given by William Faulkner on receiving the 1950 Nobel Prize. I will paraphrase a few lines. Faulkner commented on the [leader’s] cultural obligations to share the gift of hope and exhorted [others] to focus on “the old verities and truths of the heart.” “Until he does so, he writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope…His griefs grieve on no universal bones.”
According to Faulkner, it is the [leader’s] “privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice…”
I did some research a few years ago that involved Dr. King’s speech. It was a two-part study. First, I had a group of upper-level psychology students watch the “I have a dream speech”. I simultaneously asked them to rate the content of the speech in terms of attachment (defined as trust, unity, connectedness), mastery (higher goals, empowerment, collaboration), survival (coping, stress management, escape from danger), and spirituality (transcendence, eternal truths, reference to a higher power). I asked them to rate each of these hope dimensions on a scale of 1 to 5 (none (1), faint (2), noticeable (3), strong (4), very strong (5)). The average ratings for attachment, mastery, and spiritual content were all high, between 4.00 and 4.33. However, the survival rating was 2.67, statistically lower than each of the three other dimensions of hope. For this reason, I hypothesized that Dr. King’s speech was an effective tool for inspiring three of the four dimensions of hope (attachment, mastery, and spirituality).
In phase two of my research, I turned to my hope questionnaire, a measurement tool that I had developed several years earlier. (At www.gainhope.com you will find free adult and child hope tests). The full adult hope questionnaire has four subscales, one each for attachment, mastery, survival, and spirituality. I removed the survival subscale, creating a temporary, modified hope questionnaire that, in theory, paralleled the same dimensions of hope that seemed to be inspired by Dr. King’s speech (attachment, mastery, and spirituality).
I selected two large groups of students from another class of mine. One group (control) completed the abbreviated hope questionnaire before watching the speech while the second group (experimental) completed the hope questionnaire after watching the speech.
As I expected, the experimental group reported a significantly higher level of hope. From a narrow scientific perspective, this research helped to validate my measure of hope. However, because I have since accumulated a great deal of other data showing the validity of my hope test, independent of Dr. King’s speech, I can also state with confidence, that my measure validates the efficacy of Dr. King’s speech as a true “hope booster”.
I have three suggestions. Together, they may help you to feel more hopeful, and to face today and the future with greater purpose, trust, assurance, and transcendence. Watch Dr. King’s speech three times between now and the end of 2013, a total viewing commitment of less than one hour.
After your first viewing, write down a list of your closest friends and family members and make a commitment to strengthen these relationships by infusing them with greater reliability, trust and openness.
After your second viewing, draw three large circles on a piece of paper. In one circle list your three strongest values, in a second circle, list your three greatest talents, and in a third circle, three things you want to be remembered for, i.e., your legacy. Now put a great big circle around all three circles. Your purpose or calling is to be found in activities that encompass all three circles.
After your third viewing, reexamine your spiritual beliefs. What is your spiritual type? Are you a traditional follower who craves the structure of texts and practices? Are you an independent spirit who desires minimal dogma? Are you a mystical sort whose primary focus is to forge a deeper emotional connection with God or a higher power? Are you a collaborator who wishes to work hand-in-hand with the universe? Are you a sufferer who has experienced much pain and is seeking spiritual comfort? Are you a reformer who is sensitive to injustice and bent on performing acts of restorative justice? Spend some time in reflection, and then seek out belief systems and practices that align with your spiritual type.
You might begin this hope exercise by placing a link to Dr. King’s speech in your list of web favorites (youtube.com).
