Any fan of Condi is a fan of mine! ...I like this guy!
I'll have to check out his web page and find more of his work to read.
...I was also reading about Joanna Hayes, the winner of the Olympic gold medal in the 100 meter hurdles. (She lives in Riverside.) Something was different about her from early on. Her father, Ted Hayes, said Joanna was already running tirelessly at age 2. She kept running from wall to wall within their living room. “I mean for hours. We wondered what was wrong with her.” Evidently nothing was wrong with Joanna; fortunately she found what God has for her to do, for now. She has cultivated her speed, she has been doing her work. She’s still running, and fast.
Even so, the gold medal didn’t just come. Joanna suffered upheaval in her early life, which caused her to observe, “Strength and power come from struggle and pain…Maybe things would have been better if my life had been different. But when you wake up in the morning knowing things are going to be tough that day, it builds character.”
But the real kicker is what caused her upheaval. Her father, Ted Hayes, has lived among the homeless in Los Angeles for the last twenty years. He has become an influential political activist on their behalf. One day in 1984 he was watching a TV documentary about Tent City, where homeless folks gathered in downtown L.A. He was concerned for them, God’s children, out there sleeping on the streets. He was already then a devoted follower of Jesus. “I believe the Lord spoke to me that evening,” he says—and he responded.
Then and there, he decided he must obey. He uprooted away from his family. His wife and four children stayed in their home in Riverside; he moved to Los Angeles to live among, and advocate for, the homeless. (That’s where he still lives today, except for some weekends in Riverside.) Joanna—the one who just won the gold—was 6 when he left. [Aug 28 L.A. Times]