Arthur Ashe On Suffering
Late in his life, during his battle with AIDS (he had contracted HIV during a blood transfusion), one of Ashe’s fans asked him, “Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease?”
Ashe replied:
“The world over, 50,000,000 children start playing tennis, 5,000,000 learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5,000 reach the Grand Slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to the semifinals, 2 to the finals. When I was holding a cup, I never asked God ‘Why me?’ And today in pain I should not be asking God, ‘Why me?’”
8 comments:
His niece was one of my high school history teachers. She talked about him all the time, and he seemed like such an amazing guy.
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. -Ecclesiastes 7:14
Great post!
One of my great heros. MJ and other stars might learn from him. It is not always about the $.
BTW//I like your brother's pic on the Harding faculty page.
Angela,
You seem to have a connection to everyone. That being said, if he were one of my uncles, I'm betting I'd talk about him all the time.
Justin,
I really like that verse; thanks for pointing it out.
Eddie,
Charles Barkley may be right about athletes not being obligated to act as role models, but if more of them behaved like Ashe, it wouldn't really be an issue.
A classy guy (I came over from David's blog!).
Meg,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
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