January 18, 1967: Muhammad Ali celebrates his 25th birthday in Houston, Texas, with a giant cake and candles.
Muhammad Ali has one of the longest Wikipedia entries I’ve ever read. He surmounted so many challanges*, and continued to do so after he announced to the world that he had Parkinson’s disease.
The Wikipedia entry even has an entire section labeled “20th-century superlatives.”
I’d like to use this moment to remind everyone that continuous blows to the head in many sports (boxing and football being the two that stand out most) are highly linked to Parkinson’s.
I’ll end this entry with his famous words from his album “I Am the Greatest”:
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
His hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.
Now you see me, now you don’t.
George thinks he will, but I know he won’t.
*From Wiktionary (bolding mine):
- Challenge: a difficult task, especially one that the person making the attempt finds more enjoyable because of that difficulty.
