Shouldn’t we all strive to deliver our best?

A BackTalk entry produced laughter.

The writer wanted to know if my employ at The Trentonian included a yearly salary or existed as an article by article fee.

Salary. Love my job and while there’s not going to be lame testimony that “I would do this for free”, this job remains thrilling, one that pulls me out of bed, exhausts, then delivers incredible sleep.

Growing up on a farm with parents who demanded hard work as an ethic taught me the fine art of showing up ready for action. Mind you, this opportunity at The Trentonian represents a second chance.

My deal with The Trentonian requires four columns per week but my heart could never accept such a measly performance. There’s far too much at stake, plus, this job and life remains finite.

There’s also the matter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who receives accolades for significant speeches although this particular insight could change the life of any person.

This delivery occurred in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967, at Barrett Junior High School.

“What I’m saying to you this morning, my friends: Even if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures! Sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well!” “If you can’t be a pine on the top of a hill, be a scrub in the valley, but be the best little scrub on the side of the rill. Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. It isn’t by size that you win or you fail; be the best at whatever that you are,” King said. Imagine the world that we could create if every person attempted to deliver their very best as workers, parents, students, politicians, governors, mayors, neighbors, teammates, journalists and even street sweepers, etc.