Resilient people!

"I've never met a kid with more desire"

Isiah scratched and clawed his way to NFL stardom, and on the day of the big game,
His mother dies.

But then he goes to Harvard, and is assigned #39. Then one day he's reading Isiah :49, and he finds his mother's picture with a Harvard sweatshirt on!

Whooaaaaaaaaaaa! He made a poster, and put it above his bed: "Let no one out work you today"

I just put a poster up over my bed, but now I'm starting to think it's maybe too weak.

Maybe something like "Get up you lazy piece of crap, and prove me wrong!!"

Ok, so then Isiah's dad who has been trying to make up for his mistakes in the past, won his son's respect. That was cool, and then being super-proud of his son while trying to keep his cry in was a little too much for me... I lost it, then laughed at myself.

Then came Jeff- drug dealer convict turned chef:
"It felt good to be somebody"

Now I admit, he had to be something absolutely special to get out of prison and CHANGE.
So many people go in after a mistake, and then learn NOTHING but prison life and crime.

I really want him to be more famous, and be more of an example- our recidivist rate is ridiculous, and I feel like it doesn't have to be.

He said he was CRAVING praise and appreciation, and when he got it IN PRISON for cooking, then he wanted to get better at that. I wonder what might have happened if he got praise for other things? What about if we were more of a PRAISING society than a punishing one?

Then Lori Johnson- who lost her baby son and husband in a plane crash. She struck me when she said:

"Either I could look at my life and think about what was TAKEN AWAY from me, or look at what was GIVEN to me" and then..

"Why not me? Why should suffering happen to everyone else?"

That takes some AMAZING courage to say "That was great THEN, and now I appreciate those memories".

Whereas I admire it- I'd really rather do without needing THAT much courage!

Then Rhonda Britton told us she had to MAKE A DECISION about who she wanted to be after seeing her father kill her mom and then himself.

She maybe was a little too preachy for me, and a little too eager to knock people over the head with her decision, but good for her. I'm sure there's a lot to learn from her.