Every MLK Day, these buttons come out like a small, shining ritual.
Like: keys, chapstick, dog treats, and then… pocketfuls of Dr. King.
I hand them out while I’m out doing service, because sometimes the only thing I can offer is a reminder you can pin to your chest. A little metallic permission slip to be brave in public.
These were inspired by my sweet friend Dave Winer (thank you, Dave, for the nudge and the spark). And now I’ve got so many of them. I keep them like talismans. I keep them like seeds.
The quote on the buttons says:
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Whew. Right?
Not going to lie: we are in troubled times in this country.
Troubled like the air before a storm. Troubled like the kind of quiet that isn’t peace, it’s paralysis.
And I can only imagine what Dr. King would have to say if he could scroll our feeds and watch our headlines and listen to the ways we talk ourselves out of action because we’re tired or scared or numb or “it won’t matter anyway.”
But one thing I’m certain of: he would still be asking us the same question.
What are you doing for others?
How are you showing up?
It’s the question I ask myself every single day. Not as a performance. Not for gold stars. Not for the internet.
Just as a compass. A way to keep my heart from going silent.
So if you see me out there, doing my small bit of service with Clyde energy in my step (or without him, if it’s one of those days), and I offer you a button… take one. Pin it on. Carry it forward. Hand it to someone else when the moment asks for it.
Because we are all having one experience here.
And I don’t want to sleepwalk through mine.
xo
Nakedjen
NAKEDJEN 