Largesse

Victory is what happens when ten thousand hours of training meet one moment of opportunity.
Coach Jason Hill, Beachwood High School

A certain student earned his 'exemplary young man' moniker yet again over the past year and a half as he transformed himself from a rather likable teddy bear to an affably self-assured lean mean competing machine. Last weekend he completed his first ever Olympic-length triathlon in two hours and twenty six minutes, exceeding his own, his teammates' and coach's expectations. Hearing him exude pleasure while consuming post-race calories momentarily washed me clean of the grim tragedy of Virginia Tech.

A swim workout can sometimes cleanse my wounds in this world gone mad. Lately, though, with images of 32 precious students and teachers etched on my retinas, I can barely make out the Coach Hill quote that hangs over the pool deck.

Last night I saw Miss Potter, a film about an artist spurned by mother and world. When Beatrix loses the love of her life, she withdraws to her painting space to drench her sorrow in creation. Her images of bunnies grow dark as crows peck at Peter's blue coat and bloated guppies swallow up the sweet green frog. 'I must leave this house,' she tells her savior, Milly. Beatrix escapes to the countryside where her grieving mind and hands embark on endless hours of training. In time, with earnings from the most widely published children's books of all time, Miss Potter rescues 4,000 acres of rolling farmlands from developers, preserving them for the British people.

The question of this mournful day of innocents downed is ever, 'why?' The shooting, the disregard for life, the horror? The constancy of atrocity worldwide, pulled down around my senses, numbs my strumming hand. Ten thousand hours of training, coach -- why bother, when the shooter's aim can maim another child?

In a race between good and evil, firepower obliterates fairness. But it doesn't win. Your lily pad, your cabbage patch, your cotton tail, your puddle duck, your fifty yards in fifteen seconds flat -- your hope within the madness.

Victory. Another name for love.