The GREATEST

You’ll have to forgive me.   .   .

in fact, you might want to skip this all together.     .     .

it’s a long clip

and I wouldn’t be blame you if you didn’t watch this 11 minute clip of

Billy Crystal’s famous

15  ROUNDS

depicting the life of Muhammad Ali

on his 5oth Birthday.

He died the other day some 24 years later.

I’ve been a life-long fan of Ali

and met him one time

at the JACK CASINO

when it was then Higbee’s in 1988

Ali was promoting his new cologne,

A   L  I

I bought a bottle so I didn’t have to stand in a longer line of those

who didn’t buy a bottle of his cologne but still wanted to meet him.

He was up on a small stage that looked like an open end

of a boxing ring.

I didn’t know if it was the

Legend or the Man

that loomed so large in front of me.

He shook my hand with his

huge baseball mit of a hand

and asked me,

“WHAT  DO  YOU  DO?”

I told him I was a minister.   .   .

“So am I,” he said.   .   .

“We both call our God’s by different names, but

H E     I S    O U R    G O D”

We locked eyes for a brief moment

and I muttered out,

“Thanks, Champ.”

No.   .   .

it wasn’t

The   G R E A T E S T

moment in my life

but it was a special one.

Ali’s truest fragrance wasn’t ever what he did in the ring

so much as what he did outside of the ring

being the truest kind of

Caring Catalyst

Who Cares

What Matters

.     .     . not for a profession

or a religious group

but  for

o     t     h     e     r     s

which is the best

r e l i g i o n

of  all.

I’ll  miss  him

but will not grieve

what he’s done

or what will continue

because he made an all too brief visit

through the world

and made it a little better. . .

and inspired many

to do the same.      .      .

“I’ve  made  my  share  of  mistakes  along  the  way,  but  if  I  have  changed  even  one  life  for  the better,  I  haven’t  lived  in  vain.”                                                                                                                                                                                                           –Muhammad Ali