The Greatest of All Time

(This is a post I originally wrote on June 7, 2016, but couldn't get it formatted properly.  I'm editing it today, almost a month later).

Muhammad Ali, the greatest of all time, died Friday night.

I've spend the past few days on a deep dive, reading a lot of old pieces about Ali from venerated writers - many of whom are no longer with us - life Mark Kram and Dick Schaap.  As a fan of great writing, especially great sports writing, it's been pretty special to read so much about the most iconic sports figure of my lifetime.

Over the weekend, I was having a cup of coffee at Bongo Java and I asked Megan, one of my favorite baristas, what she knew about Muhammad Ali.  Megan, how is 21 years old and very bright, looked puzzled for a moment, then assumed a goofy looking fighter's stance and said, "Isn't he a, you know . . . . ?"  "A boxer," I replied.  "Yes!" she said, as her eyes lit up in recognition.  Sigh.

Realizing that was the extent of her knowledge, I gave Megan a homework assignment.  "Read the obituary in the New York Times, written by Robert Lipsyte," I said.  Continuing, I added, "Muhammad Ali was much more than a boxer, Megan."

And he was.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/sports/muhammad-ali-dies.html

This is not a post about Muhammad Ali, although it probably should be.

My conversation with Megan got me thinking about how important it is for me to expose my sons to historical figures that made a lasting impact on society, especially in my lifetime.  I take for granted that smart, seemingly inquisitive young people like Megan (and J.P. and Joe) will take it upon themselves to learn about people like Muhammad Ali or that they will be curious enough about them when they die to read about them.  But that's just not the case.

We live, today, in the age of instant gratification.  Attention spans - especially those of children - are so short that few people take the time to learn about anyone that lived or anything that happened more than a few years ago, if that long.  It's a paradox to me, because children, teens and young people today have so much information literally at their fingertips.  And yet, it seems to me like they use technology to text emoji's to each other as opposed to using it to actually learn a about people or events that impacted the world.

Does that make me the "Hey!  Get off my lawn!" guy?  Probably, but as I approach 50 years of age, I'm probably entitled to be that guy from time to time.

What I want is for my boys to have an appreciation for history and for historical figures.  And it's cook, because they do.  J.P. loves to read about Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks.  Recently, I got him a book about Satchel Paige, which he devoured.  And more than once, I've seen him sitting by himself in the reading chair in our living room, perusing the issue of ESPN:  The Magazine devoted to Muhammad Ali.

The Sunday morning after he died, J.P. and I watched a couple of YouTube videos about Muhammad Ali, just I could let him see him in action, in his prime.  J.P. marveled at how fast Ali punched and how gracefully he moved.  It was poetry in motion, for sure.  In truth, I had forgotten what an amazing athlete Muhammad Ali was in his youth, before he was stripped of his titles and prohibited from boxing for 3 1/2 years.  He wasn't the same boxer when he came back, although he won world titles and achieve worldwide acclaim after his return.

Ali Bomaye.