I am not concerned that I am not known; I seek to be worthy to be known. – Confucius
In the June issue of O magazine, Oprah interviews boxer Muhammad Ali, who’s now 59 and stricken with Parkinson’s disease. It’s pretty much a puff piece, other than when he tells Oprah that he’s planning a comeback in boxing next year. But there is one quote from Ali that caught my attention.
“I’d rather be in my condition than be a man with four children in a four-bedroom house, working hard every day to pay for his house, taking his children to school — but he’s just another person nobody knows.”
What an insult to all us average Joes who are doing exactly that. He’s become a victim of his own celebrity. It’s sad. Oprah weakly challenges him with “Do you still like being known?” but lets him off the hook when he answers with “There’s a reason I’m known – to bring people to Allah, to God.”
He’s got the right religious words, but he doesn’t seem to have gotten the message.