Use your happy skills to find loving solutions that raise all boats.

In his original speech, Dr. Martin Luther King advises us not to accept, or adjust socially, to conditions that are wrong. When we adjust, we turn a blind eye and stop making a positive difference. He also advises a non-violent approach based on the creation that comes with love and compassion for all people. Creatively maladjusted people are people who use their love to make social change.

The Dalai Lama also advocates non-violent approaches to remedy social injustice. He says that the purpose of life is happiness. Happy people practice love and compassion and do not tolerate injustice or violence on other living things.

Whether you come to social justice through happiness, or to happiness through work towards positive social change, the end result is the same. Happy people are more creative, more loving, more socially involved, volunteer in their communities more, and spread happiness to their neighbors.

Creative maladjustment can come from many sources in our society- not just altruistic social justice workers. Happiness comes from using our strengths, talents, and special gifts. We never know how those gifts will impact others in this world. Sometimes a zany or nonconventional approach in one area of life creates enough mental and emotional space to allow people to change in other areas. These ideas come together in a very special photograph from John McMillin, taken at a Martin Luther King Day March in Denver.

So…

Use your happy skills to find loving solutions that raise all boats.