Airport terminal walls have some of the most profound art and graffiti, but in our busyness we miss it. Perhaps it is because most of those spaces were designed for moving traffic, not for observation. Not so for me. My girls have learned that drooping shoulders (with side-eyes to boot) and threatening violence don\u2019t phase me an iota. They have learned to swallow hard and walk on by as I stare and drift off to a world of what-ifs and what-abouts.<\/p>\n
Every time I come back \u201chome,\u201d (and what is home you ask? In this season of life for me that would be Kenya, the land of my sojourn). I digress. Every time I return I stop to look at this picture on the wall at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. It speaks volumes. Am an avid runner, and as a track and field enthusiast, I have, with the exception of Jesse Owens, watched these men break barriers at the peak of their careers. <\/span><\/p>\n At the height of his career, 23 year-old Carl Lewis won 4 gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (am ashamed to mention the total number of medals Africa walked away with). A short Leroy Burrell and Asafa Powell years later, Usain Bolt made Lewis\u2019 performance look every bit pedestrian.<\/p>\n And the legend, the black man (his father was the son of former slaves) who is credited for single-handedly crushing Adolf Hitler\u2019s myth of Aryan supremacy at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?<\/p>\n Totally vexed by the the colored American\u2019s series of triumphs, Hitler walked out of the stadium after shaking hands with the German victors. I suppose the very thought of handing Jesse Owens his haul of 4 gold medals in his (Hitler\u2019s) own backyard was, to say the least, revolting. And yet, for all his glory, if Owens was running today, you would be excused for thinking the man was only running for exercise. Not to win. His running style and technique would roundly be considered so old.edu<\/a> today. Yes, he would tail the pack of today\u2019s elite runners.<\/p>\n Forget the fact that he was recognized in his lifetime as “perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history.” Forget the fact that, in 1935, he set 3 world records and tied another, all in less than an hour – a feat that has never been equaled and has been called “the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Just goes to show: YESTERDAY\u2019S EXCELLENCE IS TODAY\u2019S MEDIOCRITY.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Airport terminal walls have some of the most profound art and graffiti, but in our busyness we miss it. Perhaps it is because most of those spaces were designed for moving traffic, not for observation. Not so for me. My… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":804,"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions\/804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacob.zikusooka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}