Marked This Day

On this day in 1983, Donald Davis ran a mile in 6 minutes and 7 seconds. It was a world record at the time. How might that be you ask, especially since Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier back in 1954? Well Donald and Roger were running a tad bit differently. Roger was running like a normal person--forward. Donald was not. He was running backward. An odd thing to do perhaps, but he got a world record out of it. Perhaps there was more to it though. Perhaps Donald was making a statement on the inefficiency of moving backward. You can do it. Just not as well as moving forward. If you chose to live your life constantly looking behind you, second guessing the decisions you made, and wondering how you could have made things better, it’s going to slow you down. Sometimes you need to look back. To remember what happened to you--to learn from it. And it can even be beneficial--uses different muscles and helps your balance. But most of the time best way to run is forward. Maybe Donald

I hesitate to even write about this. It was a dark time in history, and people don’t like to be reminded of dark times. Why we don’t know much of anything bout the Dark Ages, am I right? People would rather go about their day ignoring the muck and the mire of the past, choosing to remember only the unicorn-pooping-rainbow times of days gone by. They may even hope lightness will shine through the darkness of the present somehow. But this doesn’t just happen on its own. It is only through focusing on the darkness of the past that we can learn to shed the light on that of the present and future. So, unfortunately, I must recall a dark, dark time back in 1992, when on this very day, Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” reached number one on the Billboard Charts. I’m all for gimmicks. Being too sexy for your shirt was probably a nice little escape from any actual darkness of the time. And if you were a model the song definitely reminded you to do your little turn on the catwalk. Number 1 though

On this day in 1970, “Pistol” Pete Maravich scored 69 points in a loss to Alabama setting a single game scoring record that lasted for over 20 years. He only had 22 points at halftime, but then he went to a different gear. They still lost. But no one remembers that. Because greatness can transcend results like wins and losses. It’s a wondrous thing--to be truly great at something. Most of us only get a taste of it--though there are different kinds of greatness. And it seems that those who touch it like Pistol, those that are truly transcendent in what they do, are here only for a moment. Maravich died young and only played pro ball for 10 seasons. But that was long enough to give us some great moments. And I’ve come to believe that life is about moments. Moments that inspire. Moments that teach. Moments that wash the haze of the routine away and make you realize that life is extraordinary and the people in it are capable of amazing things. The odds are you will never spend a significan