Embrace what you have ... strive for better.
My thoughts came to this distillation in a weekend where my band played its first outdoor private party of the season and also when Muhammed Ali passed away.
We played for a pig roast, a gathering of over 100 people out in the country. Kids were running around and swimming in a pool. Folks were eating barbecue, playing volleyball, riding four-wheelers. Another band of retired players backed an Elvis impersonator. Generally it was common folks gathering as mankind has done throughout civilization to take time to appreciate good things and enjoy themselves.
The death of Ali, known by his self moniker The Greatest, caused the world to mourn not just because of his superior skill in the boxing ring but because of the way he lived and what he did outside the ring. Ali was black, brash, cocky, a converted Muslim, and stood his ground in the face of polite society's disapproval. His refusal to serve in Vietnam was an upfront primer on social justice, more willing to go to jail than "to help murder and kill other poor people ... Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won't even stand up for me right here in America ..." He stayed in the U.S., and after his hiatus resulting from refusing to serve, he came back to the ring and retook his place atop the boxing world. He could back up his talk, not just in the ring but in the larger world. He made us better.
Just because there are wrongs in life does not mean that we shouldn't take pause and enjoy the pleasures of living. It's important to do so, to enjoy the moment whenever we can. The more we stop and smell the proverbial roses, the more we will want the same for everyone - any group of people disapproved of, discriminated against, treated unjustly.
Embrace what you have ... strive for better.
My thoughts came to this distillation in a weekend where my band played its first outdoor private party of the season and also when Muhammed Ali passed away.
We played for a pig roast, a gathering of over 100 people out in the country. Kids were running around and swimming in a pool. Folks were eating barbecue, playing volleyball, riding four-wheelers. Another band of retired players backed an Elvis impersonator. Generally it was common folks gathering as mankind has done throughout civilization to take time to appreciate good things and enjoy themselves.
The death of Ali, known by his self moniker The Greatest, caused the world to mourn not just because of his superior skill in the boxing ring but because of the way he lived and what he did outside the ring. Ali was black, brash, cocky, a converted Muslim, and stood his ground in the face of polite society's disapproval. His refusal to serve in Vietnam was an upfront primer on social justice, more willing to go to jail than "to help murder and kill other poor people ... Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won't even stand up for me right here in America ..." He stayed in the U.S., and after his hiatus resulting from refusing to serve, he came back to the ring and retook his place atop the boxing world. He could back up his talk, not just in the ring but in the larger world. He made us better.
Just because there are wrongs in life does not mean that we shouldn't take pause and enjoy the pleasures of living. It's important to do so, to enjoy the moment whenever we can. The more we stop and smell the proverbial roses, the more we will want the same for everyone - any group of people disapproved of, discriminated against, treated unjustly.
Embrace what you have ... strive for better.
