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But I like to think an athlete is an athlete.

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Ch 03 On The Excellence Of Contentment Story 28

It is related that an athlete had been reduced to the greatest distress by adverse fortune. His throat being capacious and his hands unable to fill it, he complained to his father and asked him for permission to travel as he hoped to be hoped to be able to gain a livelihood by the strength of his arm.

Excellence and skill are lost unless exhibited.
Lignum aloes is placed on fire and musk rubbed.

The father replied: ‘My son, get rid of this vain idea and place the feet of contentment under the skirt of safety because great men have said that happiness does not consist in exertion and that the remedy against want is in the moderation of desires.

No one can grasp the skirt of luck by force.
It is useless to put vasmah on a bald man’s brow.
If thou hast two hundred accomplishments for each hair of thy head
They will be of no use if fortune is unpropitious.
What can an athlete do with adverse luck?
The arm of luck is better than the arm of strength.

The son rejoined: ‘Father, the advantages of travel are many, such as recreation of the mind entailing profit, seeing of wonderful and hearing of strange things, recreation in cities, associating with friends, acquisition of dignity, rank, property, the power of discriminating among acquaintances and gaining experience of the world, as the travellers in the Tariqat have said:

As long as thou walkest about the shop or the house
Thou wilt never become a man, 0 raw fellow.
Go and travel in the world
Before that day when thou goest from the world.’

The father replied: ‘My son, the advantages of travel such as thou hast enumerated them are countless but they regard especially five classes of men: firstly, a merchant who possesses in consequence of his wealth and power graceful male and female slaves and quick-handed assistants, alights every day in another town and every night in another place, has recreation every moment and sometimes enjoys the delights of the world.’

A rich man is not a stranger in mountain, desert or solitude.
Wherever he goes he pitches a tent and makes a sleeping place;
Whilst he who is destitute of the goods of this world
Must be in his own country a stranger and unknown.

Secondly, a scholar, who is for the pleasantness of his speech, the power of his eloquence and the fund of his instruction, waited upon and honoured wherever he goes.

The presence of a learned man is like pure gold
Whose power and price is known wherever he goes.
An ignorant fellow of noble descent resembles Shahrua,
Which nobody accepts in a foreign country.

Thirdly, handsome fellows with whom the souls of pious men are inclined to commingle because it has been said that a little beauty is better than much wealth. An attractive face is also said to be a slave to despondent hearts and the key to locked doors, wherefore the society of such a person is everywhere known to be very acceptable:

A beautiful person meets with honour and respect everywhere
Although perhaps driven away in anger by father and mother.
I have seen a peacock feather in the leaves of the Quran.
I said: ‘I see thy position is higher than thy deserts.’
It said: ‘Hush, whoever is endowed with beauty,
Wherever he places his foot, hands are held out to receive it.’
When a boy is symmetrical and heart-robbing
It matters not if his father disowns him.
He is a jewel which must not remain in a shell.
A precious pearl everyone desires to buy.

Fourthly, one with a sweet voice, who retains, with a David-like throat, water from flowing and birds from soaring. By means of this talent he holds the hearts of people captive and religious men are delighted to associate with him.

[...] Read more

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Jim Thorpe

Born in May of Eighteen eighty-eight
Though the birth record is obscure
In Oklahoma, in a one room cabin
With brother Charlie, of that we're sure.

His father, Hiram, was a farmer
Mother, Mary James, a Pottawatomie
Descendant of the Chief, Black Hawk
A Warrior with an athletic history.

His Indian name of Wa-Tho-Huk
Translated meaning of “Bright Path”
As his future really seemed to be
Before the typical white man's wrath.

His twin brother passed away at nine
Then in the year, Nineteen, ought four
He attended the Carlisle Indian School
Where he learned football, track, and more.

Trained by legend, Glenn “Pop” Warner
Who had the unique insight to see
The young phenomenon evolving
Into, the great athlete, he would be.

All-American in Nineteen 0-nine
And soon, on the Olympic Team
Sailing across the sea to Sweden
The answer to many-a-youngster's dream.

He trained on board on the journey
And he must have done it very well
For he blew away his competitors
That's what, long lasting records tell.

In the Pentathlon and Decathlon
He won a Gold Medal in each
And it seemed any goal he went for
For him, would be an easy reach.

Gustav, the King of Sweden said it best
After the Nineteen twelve Olympics
“Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.”
After witnessing, Thorpe's sporting epics.

And, not one to stand on ceremony
That sometimes, great success can bring
He answered, honestly and simply
As they shook hands, and said, “Thanks, King.”

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To An African Child Starving To Death

(References to the nightingale and the Grecian urn are to the two wonderful odes by Keats, and the athlete dying young recalls the lovely poem by Housman) .

.....................................

You unprepossessing brat!
You are no nightingale, no Grecian urn,
not even any athlete dying young -
ah, dying young perhaps, but you never were
an athlete, never strove,
never achieved,
never broke
any records, nor, I suppose,
any hearts that might mourn for you,
except perhaps for your mother,
who sits there dumbly with sagging breasts
waiting for you to die, staring vacantly
from no past that could ever be celebrated
towards no future in the burning sands.

God curse the fate that brought me here
to have to write an ode for such as you,
unmemorable, already unremembered
even before you are dead!
to write in such a horrid spot
revolting in its barrenness and heat
that never ends -
that brings no peace ever -
that brings no poetic thoughts -
no inspiration -
nothing but dull, prosaic perspiration
which I must wipe from my brow
as you stare at me
with those damned eyes -
the eyes of the damned -
the innumerable damned -
and what am I to do?

I would rather look past you
than see those hollow eyes
and sunken cheeks again;
but all I see is your mother close to you
sitting wordlessly
as it were in reproach -
but what am I to do?
I had a mother too, you know -
she is dead now,
as, no doubt, you also soon will be
and no doubt your mother too.
She would look -
she would look like that

[...] Read more

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If we carry on filling up the calendar, we keep on pushing the athlete, we shorten the athletes longevity. The risk is to shorten a career that could have lasted 10 years because the athlete is burnt out.

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The athlete of today is not an athlete alone. He's the center of a team - doctors, scientists, coaches, agents and so on.

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The Great Nations Of Europe

I read a book by Alfred Crosby called European Ecological Imperialism. It sounds awful, but it was great. It was about how everywhere Europeans went in the world, their diseases came along with them and killed the native peoples. ";They got TB and typhoid and athlete's foot Diphtheria and the flu."; They got all of them. Except for athlete's foot - I had to contribute something other than what was in the book.
I'll admit to a certain anti-imperialism. I've got stock and yet I root against the stock market every day. I just can't help myself. I'm constitutionally a Cubs fan. I've always rooted for the underdogs, and usually they lose. You know why? 'Cause they're the underdog.

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Out at Home

Jackie Robinson is exalted
as the first Black man to play,
but far fewer fans remember Glenn Burke,
the first ballplayer openly gay.

Like Jackie, he played for the Dodgers-
(different coast and a different time.)
Glenn came up to the Majors
In the summer of 79'

Burke was strong and tall and fast
And some teammates called him " King Kong"
Though he roomed with Reggie Smith on the road
most nights Reggie Smith slept alone.

Burke befriended Young Tommy Lasorda
which was why he was traded away.
Old Lasorda couldn't deal with the rumors,
Nor acknowledge his own son was gay.

Glenn Burke rode the pines while in Oakland
Billy Martin never gave him much chance
When Burke injured his leg in Spring Training
That ended his time at the dance.

He drifted, his playing days over,
He used, he stole and did time.
An accident left him a cripple
Unprotected sex ended his line.

No shock was the A.I.D.s diagnosis-
His sister had long known he was gay.
When she took him in he was dying
when all others turned him away.

Sandy Alderson, with the Athletics,
took pity on Burke in despair.
The team paid for his A.I.D.S. medication
and covered the cost of his care.

Sad is the fate of the Athlete unsung,
dying apart from his team.
Glenn Burke showed that a gay man could play,
That a Gay Athlete also can dream.

Glenn Burke passed a long time ago
But his story deserves to be told.
He said when your suffering, dying of A.I.D.S.
Even days in the summer are cold.

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Charles Baudelaire

Le Masque (The Mask)

Statue allégorique dans le goût de la Renaissance

Contemplons ce trésor de grâces florentines;
Dans l'ondulation de ce corps musculeux
L'Elégance et la Force abondent, soeurs divines.
Cette femme, morceau vraiment miraculeux,
Divinement robuste, adorablement mince,
Est faite pour trôner sur des lits somptueux
Et charmer les loisirs d'un pontife ou d'un prince.

— Aussi, vois ce souris fin et voluptueux
Où la Fatuité promène son extase;
Ce long regard sournois, langoureux et moqueur;
Ce visage mignard, tout encadré de gaze,
Dont chaque trait nous dit avec un air vainqueur:
«La Volupté m'appelle et l'Amour me couronne!»
À cet être doué de tant de majesté
Vois quel charme excitant la gentillesse donne!
Approchons, et tournons autour de sa beauté.

Ô blasphème de l'art! ô surprise fatale!
La femme au corps divin, promettant le bonheur,Par le haut se termine en monstre bicéphale!

— Mais non! ce n'est qu'un masque, un décor suborneur,
Ce visage éclairé d'une exquise grimace,
Et, regarde, voici, crispée atrocement,
La véritable tête, et la sincère face
Renversée à l'abri de la face qui ment
Pauvre grande beauté! le magnifique fleuve
De tes pleurs aboutit dans mon coeur soucieux
Ton mensonge m'enivre, et mon âme s'abreuve
Aux flots que la Douleur fait jaillir de tes yeux!

— Mais pourquoi pleure-t-elle? Elle, beauté parfaite,
Qui mettrait à ses pieds le genre humain vaincu,
Quel mal mystérieux ronge son flanc d'athlète?

— Elle pleure insensé, parce qu'elle a vécu!
Et parce qu'elle vit! Mais ce qu'elle déplore
Surtout, ce qui la fait frémir jusqu'aux genoux,
C'est que demain, hélas! il faudra vivre encore!
Demain, après-demain et toujours! — comme nous!

The Mask


Allegorical Statue in the Style of the Renaissance


Let us gaze at this gem of Florentine beauty;

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No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow.

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America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.

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If you have a body, you are an athlete.

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As an athlete, when you least expect it, you may find yourself standing on the threshold of an accomplishment so monumental that it strikes fear into your soul. You must stand ready, at any moment, to face the unknown. You must be ready to walk boldly thru the wall of uncertainty.

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The power of one is above all things The power to believe in yourself Often well beyond any latent ability previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, The body is simply the means it uses.

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America believes in education the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.

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I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win -- if you don't you won't.

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No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow.

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I was a nerd academically. But I was also an athlete and a musician. I never wanted to be shut out of any situation. I think it was that more than anything.

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Werner Herzog

Everyone who makes films has to be an athlete to a certain degree because cinema does not come from abstract academic thinking; it comes from your knees and thighs.

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Mickey Rourke

I never look backwards. I have always been an athlete. I boxed before I acted.

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Sore Loser

You tried out for the high school team
So you would have some childhood dreams
That you and your father could share
Football coach said you're too small
Don't even think of basketball
You knew you were destined to fail

Went to the track meet
You wanna be an athlete (sore loser)
Get back in your seat they said
Go to the dugout
Three strikes you stuck out (sore loser)
And home runs flew over your head

Looking down on rock n' roll
And you dreamed of scoring goals
You're saving those dreams for your bed
Thought it was cool to be a jock
You ended up a rent-a-cop
A dozen donuts in your hand

You're a loser
A sore loser

Now it seems the tables turned
The game of life you should have learned
So try using some of your brains
All your high school friends are stars
Driving really fancy cars
The irony drives you insane


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