The article relates an actual experience that Davis Miller had with Muhammad Ali on March 31, 1988. Miller lived in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali's hometown. Thinking that he could perhaps find Ali visiting his mother on this Easter weekend, Miller drove to Ali's mother's home in Louisville. As he pulled up to the home, he spotted a "block-long, white" Winnebago parked in the driveway and instantly knew that Ali was home. He grabbed a stack of magazines and books and bravely walked to the front door.
Davis Miller had been a fan of Muhammad Ali his whole life. An avid boxer and martial artist, he idolized Ali and considered him to be his ultimate hero. I can't even imagine how he felt. We all have childhood heroes and idols, but we seldom meet them in this life. Davis Miller sought an opportunity to fulfill a dream and took it when it crossed his path.
The rest of the article chronicles the detailed events that transpired over the next several hours. Miller was graciously invited into Ali's home. They talked for hours, swapped stories and even playfully boxed a little in the front yard as the neighborhood kids rode by on their bicycles. Miller read to Ali one of his stories that he had written for Sports Illustrated years earlier and Ali signed the manuscript. Ali flipped through his own biography and signed every single picture in the book along with a personal note. He even performed a few magic tricks for his new friend Davis Miller.
After a few hours of talking, Ali determined that his new friend Davis was genuine. He invited him over for dinner and the two spent the remaining hours of the night talking with Ali's mother and brother while they watched old boxing tapes from the "Glory Days." The two became intimate friends and Ali even invited Miller's wife and children over for Easter Dinner that Sunday.
This story was a positive influence filled with optimism and love. The admiration and respect that Miller had for Ali was mutually returned because the two believed that each person deserved that same love and respect.
As I am pondering my term paper and the importance of meaning in human interaction, this story stood out as a shining example of how human connection can mean so much. For Davis Miller, those hours spent with his hero are priceless. The fact that the greatest boxer--and arguably the greatest and most influential athlete of the last 50 years--spent an entire day with one fan means that meaningful human connection is as valuable for everyone as it is for you and me. We need it as much as we need air. Why do you think Christ gave the second great commandment?
Love thy neighbor as thy self.
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| Davis Miller (left) and Muhammad Ali (right) |
I believe that as we strive to be kind and charitable to those around us, we grow spiritually stronger and closer to Christ. The examples of Davis Miller and Muhammad Ali who treated each other as people with feelings, hopes and fears were especially meaningful to me. For those of you who don't know much about Muhammad Ali, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease that prematurely ended his boxing career and rendered him a shadow of the physical giant that he used to be. Still, he was willing to ignore pain and pride in order to give himself to his fan because he recognized how much it would mean to that one, ordinary person. Davis Miller asked Ali if he thought it was fair for the once "quickest, baddest, prettiest man in the world" to be left to deteriorate and weaken. Ali smiled and smoothly replied, "I know why this happened. God is showing me, and showing you"--he pointed his index finger at Miller and widened his eyes--"that I'm just a man, just like everybody else."
That, to me, makes him a giant of a man.
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