I shared this with my students on a regular basis in an effort to help them understand the world and our self as always changing phenomena. It is hard for adults to come to grips with Heraclitus’ thinking, let alone junior high students.
No man
ever steps
in the same river twice
for it’s not the same river
and he’s not the same man.
– Heraclitus
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
This fits with the maxim, life is a running river, you never will taste the same cup of water, everything is new every second, what is around the next bend unknown to all.
Ivan, let me say from a distance and reading you for a while, my understanding of happiness is something we carry with us, sort of peace of mind, a fulfillment space as you give to your students, give on the blog, seems for all the other crap and challenges, politics etc of being a teacher, you carry happiness.
You have transcended that space and are open and involved, invested in changing kids lives, got to be some happiness.
Excellent life my man.
Marty
Thank you Marty. I appreciate our conversations. Sports and its people seems a natural connection for us and you have rare insights into the changes that have happened in sports and their impacts on the world. I enjoy that insight and our conversations immensely.
Ivan. I know Jackie Robinson was interesting to you, so may I share another athlete, black do , well transcend sport and racism.
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“And now the poor guy’s girlfriend (undoubtedly ex-girlfriend now) is on tape cajoling him into revealing his racism. Man, what a winding road she led him down to get all of that out. She was like a sexy nanny playing “pin the fried chicken on the Sambo.” She blindfolded him and spun him around until he was just blathering all sorts of incoherent racist sound bites that had the news media peeing themselves with glee.
They caught big game on a slow news day, so they put his head on a pike, dubbed him Lord of the Flies, and danced around him whooping…
Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen’s privacy in such an un-American way? Although the impact is similar to Mitt Romney’s comments that were secretly taped, the difference is that Romney was giving a public speech. The making and release of this tape is so sleazy that just listening to it makes me feel like an accomplice to the crime. We didn’t steal the cake but we’re all gorging ourselves on it.”
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Lew Alcindor, Aka, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, the young kid who at Power Memorial high school, played on maybe the best team ever. Oh did not matter who the other players were, he was that dominant.
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College basketball changed its dunking rules because of his complete dominance.
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He traveled to California for college, UCLA to be paired with maybe the best college coach ever, John Wooden.
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Kareem was always cerebral, but I believe this his best yet.
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To transcend the racism he experienced, to let go of his hurt, and express compassion for a racist, oh yes the guy is a racist, shines in my viewpoint
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This is my mindfulness moment of the week, thank you Kareem.
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It is no surprise that Kareem and John Wooden made such a formidable on the court. They were an incredible duo off the court.
Thank you Marty.
Just a thought, I have ideas,,funny anecdotes, and could see a joint blog dealing with sports and the impact on culture, nick names, love that one.
Whatever it becomes is fine between the two of us whatever or how many posts is perfect.
Just a thought..
Larry bird, the hick from French lick, white, un educated and poorer than ghee to black gets in a way. He is an introvert, his friends are the janitors in the boston garden the vendors.
When bird was drafted by the celtics he arrived in town. The head office got a call, bird has stumbled into one the tuff Irish neighborhood bars and an alert went out to get him.
They walked in, found in overalls with a cheap beer lobbied up to the bar, looking if not by his 6 foot 8 inch structure was one of them.
He did not need protected I would guess you have that guy any crap and you would see he had many bodyguards
Magic Johnson. Show times director.
Flamboyant, maybe the most prolific smile in all of sports.
More later but these two men saved pro basketball and hated each other
Later bird would Sy, magics announcement of having the AIDS virus was the worst day of his life.
No one has ever has a greater battle, they as bird says, competition at this level changes you.
Him and magic have a bond a friendship uncommon not needing any nurturing or daily watering.
I think people often misunderstand competition which comes from the same Latin root as competent. It means to lift up and work with others. Quite often, we compete in a tooth and nail way forgetting about the human side. Great competitors like Magic and Larry Bird put it into perspective for us in their admiration for each other.