Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) died ten years ago today.  Its hard to believe it’s been that long.  Seems like just a few months ago.

I remember when he died, there was a different tone coming out of the black community, into which I had deeper roots at the time.  In my world, and therefore in my mind, he was most famous for being a very good boxer, for “Get up and fight, sucker” as he stood over his beaten foe, who I now understand he was publicly criticizing for having “taken a dive” (feigning defeat for the purpose of collecting his pay), and of course for his conscientious objector position to the American War in VietNam.

When I listened to the black voices surrounding me on the event of his death, what I heard was none of that.  What I heard was respect for someone who had used his position for humanitarian and philanthropic work.  He was viewed as a respected elder.  I remember reading about him and some of his quotes that I still find helpful to this day.

“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” and

“If you look at the world the same way when you’re 50 that you did when you were 20, then you wasted 30 years.”

Today, I remember and pay homage to a great man, 10 years after his passing.   He referred to himself as “the Greatest” and at one point, he had to admit that he was unsuited for military service due to severe dyxlexia causing him to be functionally illiterate.  When that became known, he publicly said something like “I said I was the Greatest, not the smartest.”

May we continue to have wise people live their imperfect lives and bring us their resulting wisdom.  May we continue to hear the voices of the elders, even if they’re not “our” elders.   And may this period of exploitive elders pass us by with enough meat on our bones to prevail for the good of our progeny.