Remember The Past

People always have a tendency to ignore those who have blazed the trail for them. It stems from society's very short memory and their only giving credit to what is "HOT" at the moment. They always say in sports or in any competitive venue that you are only as good as your last game, meet, tournament, or race. It is a good mind set for an athlete to keep pushing themselves but we must remember those who opened our eyes to the possibility, showing us it can be done. This is true for anything. In comedy it is Richard Pryor blazing the path for the likes of Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock. In music it was Jerry Lee Louis and Elvis blazing the path for Rock and Roll. Even Madonna blazed a path for modern female artists. In boxing there was Jack Johnson (the real Jack Johnson!) and Muhammed Ali blazing the path for black athletes when there was still segregation and strong prejudice! In basketball there is Michael Jordan showing us a way to play the game that we have never seen. He paved the way for the likes of LeBron James. Maybe we should stop asking ourselves if  the LeBron's are better than Jordan's were and instead ask if there would even be a LeBron without a Jordan? Would there be a Ali without a Johnson, a Tyson without either of them? We should pay respect to the past, to where we came from because without them there would be no us. It is easy to strive to be better than someone, but it is hard to be the best with no guideline. We see it all the time in Crossfit. It is easy to look at a whiteboard and see a score and try to beat it. There lays a specific time to beat, with it a plan. Now try hitting a workout with no time to beat, no time on the board to guide you. This is what the greats did. They pushed themselves beyond anything they had seen before, with no guideline. So please next time you engage in a  conversation about the greatest of all time please just make mention or even a mental note that without the original greats there would not be any modern heros.