Relevance of Dr. King Today, Ex-President in Jail, & Is There a Formula to Happiness?
January 20, 2026
What I am Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: What is the real beginning of wisdom?
MLK Day: Our modern world vs Dr. King’s words.
All Things French: Do Guilty Presidents Go to Prison? Mon Dieu!
Happiness and Intelligence: There’s a correlation…isn’t there?
What I’m Watching: Idris Elba plays corporate businessman on hijacked plane.
Jukebox Playlist: Had to give this one a listen today. Thank you, Billie Holiday.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Wisdom begins in wonder. — Attributed to ancient Greek philosopher Socrates
In ancient Greece, this insight emerged from a man who believed philosophy didn’t start with answers but with questions. Socrates (and later Plato and Aristotle) saw wonder not as childish curiosity but as the spark that pushes humanity to look beyond the surface of things. In a world where people often accepted tradition and authority without challenge, wonder was a radical act. It meant pausing long enough to ask, Why is this the way it is? Could it be different? Could it be something else entirely?
That moment of questioning is where wisdom begins. And, frankly, that philosophy couldn’t come at a better time for us today.
Certainty is comforting, but it’s also limiting. When you’re certain, you stop learning. Wonder, on the other hand, interrupts. It cracks open the door to possibility. It humbles you just enough to recognize that the world is bigger, more complex, and more beautiful than your assumptions. Or, it can show us that this earth can also be uglier and more brutal than our limited experience has taught us, or that our most fervent desire would wish. Whatever it is that we’re discovering, wonder invites us to explore rather than defend. Forces us to listen rather than to declare. And more important still, it invites us to put down our armor, our very strong instinct to defend ourselves at all costs. In that sense, wonder is not just the beginning of wisdom, it’s the antidote to arrogance. I really do believe that it keeps our minds open, flexible, and alive.
In daily life, wonder is something I can practice. It doesn’t require a mountain retreat or a degree in philosophy. It can be as simple as noticing something I usually ignore by asking myself, What am I missing? What else could be true? Wonder turns routine moments into opportunities for insight. It softens possibilities for conflict because conflict often involves the certainty that I’m right and you’re wrong. It deepens relationships because it encourages me to see people as layered and evolving, rather than fixed.
Wisdom isn’t a destination. It’s a posture. Can we cultivate a more open attitude toward the unknown? Can we resist the illusion that we’ve already figured everything out? This world tends to reward certainty. (See how popular Donald Trump was in 2016…the strong man who knew it all and wasn’t afraid to say he did? Freud called it the Father Figure. Comic books turned it into Superman. Dictators over the centuries used it to achieve their own ends.) Wonder has the opposite effect. It can be scary, in that it removes the barriers that we’re convinced will keep us safe. It will certainly slow us down. I stop pushing through ideas like a bull in that proverbial china shop. I start being more careful. I start to listen more. And in that pause, wisdom is born.
When Socrates said that “Wisdom begins in wonder,” he wasn’t talking about idle curiosity. He was talking about the courage to imagine something better than the world in front of our eyes, the world we read about, the one we watch online. And that idea of imagining something better echoes across centuries…all the way to the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whom we celebrate this week.
Dr. King built an entire movement on the power of moral wonder, the ability to look at injustice and still ask, What if this nation lived up to its own promises? What if freedom and dignity were not reserved for the few, but guaranteed for all? That kind of wonder is not weakness, and it’s certainly not naiveté. It’s the engine that propel every great leap forward in human history.
