Friday, April 13, 2007

Jackie Robinson broke into major league baseball sixty years ago Sunday. Yeah, the Rutgers womens basketball team is now doing windsprints in a gymnasium in hell. They're a classy bunch. But Jackie Robinson. What he was called and what he went through. Alone. Well, almost alone. There was Branch Rickey. But you know what I mean.

The word " Hero " is tossed around like a frisbee these days. The term has been devalued. The inflation of vocabulary has taken its toll. " Heroes " now are as common as pigeon shit splattered on statues.

Jackie Robinson. He was a hero. Remember that name. Look up that word. And you might also wish to read the works of one Joseph Campbell, who wrote The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Campbell wrote: " Go with your feelings. trust your feelings...When Ben Kenobi ( Of Star Wars ) says, ' May the Force be with you,' he's speaking of the power and energy of life, not of programed political intentions... The world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves or have listened only to their neighbors to learn what they ought to do, how they ought to behave, and what the values are that they should be living for. "

On Sunday it will have been sixty years since that true hero emerged. Where have you gone Jackie Robinson? Coo Ka choo. Coo Ka choo...

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