The moon was an otherworldly blood orange Monday night as it lit a shimmering fuse along the waters off the Oak Bluffs town beach. It was so spectacular that nearly every car and truck pulled off the road so its inhabitants could stare . . . and reflect.

As the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday approaches, one wonders if Dr. King drew inspiration from a similar view from the porch at the Overton House on Sea View avenue, where he reportedly stayed during his visits to the Island. It was here, it is said, that he worked on some of his historic speeches, whose words are remembered forever by many Americans.

The rising red moon no doubt triggered colorful, imaginative dreams among those who saw it that night. But few, if any, are capable of dreaming quite like Martin Luther King Jr., whose 93rd birthday will be celebrated Sunday and followed by the national holiday on Monday. His bold yet peaceful dreams of freedom and equality spawned the civil rights movement, which has blossomed into a worldwide call for human rights for oppressed people everywhere.

Above all, Dr. King focused his hopes and his dreams on young people. In perhaps his most poignant speech, the “Dream” speech delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963, Dr. King told the world famously, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today!”

Though Martha’s Vineyard might seem worlds away from the strife and conflict that drove Dr. King to channel his brilliance and passion toward improving the human race, today’s technology has linked us all. Human rights violations halfway around the world are felt on Main street Vineyard Haven, Edgartown and everywhere else. In this environment, young people on the Island have their own dreams, so elegantly expressed elsewhere on this page.

If they and the rest of us can learn anything from the life and dreams of Martin Luther King Jr., it might be that caring — and doing something — about the plight of others takes precedence over what we want for ourselves. Personal rewards usually come to people such as Dr. King, who, at 35, became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1964.

But he didn’t have much time to savor such honors, or even worry about his own safety for that matter. For years, he was the target of nearly constant, anonymous death threats. And in 1958 — some 10 years before he was assassinated — a woman stabbed him with a letter opener at a Harlem bookstore, where he was signing his new book. Harlem Hospital doctors saved his life that day, assuring that the most important decade in civil rights history would indeed come to pass.

Maybe it was that incident, along with his strong faith, that equipped Dr. King to navigate the next 10 years with an inner calm and an acceptance of the dangers that awaited someone trying to establish equality among all peoples. He simply cared more about his mission than about himself. He knew he might die prematurely, and he was at peace with that.

In his last public speech before he was killed the next day in Memphis, Dr. King said, presciently: “Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like any man, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.”

Is it presumptuous to think that such momentous thoughts came to Dr. King while he stared at the moonlight off Oak Bluffs? Perhaps, but is there a better spot?