I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

Hate is the heavier burden

When King made this choice, he wasn't being naive about hate's power. He'd experienced it directly—the violence, the rejection, the systems designed to diminish him. His insight is more practical than poetic: hate demands constant energy. It requires you to remember every slight, rehearse every grievance, stay vigilant against enemies. It's exhausting work that never quite pays off.

The surprising part is that choosing love isn't about feeling warm or forgiving people who don't deserve it. It's about recognizing that hate is a trap you set for yourself. While the person you hate might barely notice, you're the one carrying the weight around. You're the one whose nervous system stays activated, whose thoughts return to the same painful moments, whose future gets smaller because you're so focused on the past.

This matters today because we live in a culture that often treats grudge-holding as justified, even righteous. Social media makes it easy to nurture resentment indefinitely. But King's observation cuts through that: at some point, you have to decide whether you're willing to let what someone else did determine how you spend your emotional energy. Love—directed at yourself, your goals, people worth your time—is actually the more practical choice. It's the one that lets you move forward.