Tuesday's Wipeout...Inspired by Lopez Lomong?

This wipeout is not as bad as the time I flew off a mountain bike in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and found myself falling through pine trees to the bottom of a forest floor. Or the time in college when I lost my balanced coming down a hill and slid, face first, down a steep hill. No, This is a skinned knee.

I tripped while running a 5K after work and flew, Superman-style,  across the pavement in Stratford, CT. I stood back up, picked the rocks out of my knees and elbows, and continued to keep a 40-year old body paced and moving ahead.  I am older. I run slower. I lose energy. And I carry middle-aged weight more than ever before. Still, I run, like I write, for my life.

And that is why I'm posting about Lopez Lomong's memoir again. The key to anything is perseverance, dedication, hope (Hoops4Hope - thanks Cousin Mark), and faith in the great whatever. Everything evolves at exactly the right time. I'm using Lomong's words (and his life story) to keep fighting forward with the journey and to seize every day for all its possibilities. I will continue a good pace (scabs and all) with daily runs and journals, and most definitely cheer for Lopez's Didinga-American representation in the London Olympics. His memoir keeps blinking on my radar and I continue to think about them in relation to  David Eggers' What is the What, John Dau's When God Grew Tired of Us, John Dau's and Mary Akech's Lost Boy, Lost Girl, Felicia McMahon's Not Just Child's Play, and Linda Sue Park's Long Walk For Water. Lopez's story fits beautifully with Warren St. John's Outcasts United, too, and the admirable work of Luma Mufleh and the Fugees Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. Sports. Writing. Hope.

The hoops are coming full circle.  @lopezlomong @fugeesacademy @writing project @hoops4hopeUSA