Thoughts on Muhammad Ali

In my 61st year I’ve come to some major con­clu­sions and changes in my think­ing, shock­ing my friends and fam­ily with my dis­cov­er­ies and obser­va­tions of life (even more than usual).

Last week it was declar­ing my high­est weight. Then the other day while using the solar clothes dryer in the back yard, I dis­cov­ered a bet­ter way to hang up socks. Not earth-shattering news, but after hang­ing up clothes for 50-some years, it’s a huge change.

There have been other changes for me, such as the rea­son for this entry; I have started to read the sports page in the Inquirer. OK, OK, not every sin­gle word, but some­times a piece will catch my eye, like the arti­cle titled “Muham­mad Ali sends let­ter to Nor­we­gian people.”

I’m not a big sports fan, every­one who knows me would agree, even though I grad­u­ated from The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity. Don’t roll your eyes! Box­ing in par­tic­u­lar, has always repelled and sick­ened me. But there is some­thing about Muham­mad Ali, (born Cas­sius Mar­cel­lus Clay, Jr.) that has fas­ci­nated me all these years, apart from his cho­sen sport.

Per­haps it’s the poet in him. “Float like a but­ter­fly, sting like a bee.” “The man who has no imag­i­na­tion has no wings.” What gen­tle and clever notions from a man who made his fame and for­tune beat­ing other men to a pulp.

And now he has said, after the attacks against mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism in Nor­way, “Peo­ple have the same ideals no mat­ter what reli­gion or race they are. I see the same wishes for our chil­dren to have happy, healthy lives; I see the same con­cerns for oth­ers less for­tu­nate than our­selves; I see the same desire for peace and dignity.”

Ali announced that he had Parkinson’s dis­ease, a degen­er­a­tive neu­ro­log­i­cal con­di­tion, in 1984. Since his retire­ment from the ring he has devoted much of his time to phil­an­thropy, rais­ing funds for the Muham­mad Ali Parkin­son Cen­ter and has sup­ported Spe­cial Olympics and the Make A Wish Foun­da­tion, among others.

I wish him well, and I totally agree with his words, “A man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20, has not lived.” It’s true for me too; I have truly lived.

Beth Sin­den, Galion

Posted by Beth Sinden on Aug 3 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.