SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO ROLL THE DICE

Jersey Joe Walcott: Never say die

Human beings were not made to live in cocoons.

But we make them anyway. We wrap ourselves in them to feel artificially safe, secure and certain. But life is UNcertain. We can only ever be certain of ourselves and what's in us.

Our cocoons might be our lifestyle, our routines, the confines of our house, our career, our family, our well-practiced public persona, our 401K, our life insurance, our addictions (booze, drugs, TV, technology, gossip), or any combination of these things.

But that isn't reality. These cocoons are just our way of not facing reality. No, I'm not saying you shouldn't have a house and a 401K. I'm talking about how you relate to these things.

My larger point is this: You can spend your whole life trying to get comfortable and miss out on life altogether. Moreover, you will probably spend so much time building your cocoon that you don't do as much good for people, needy people, as you should.

And that includes yourself. And your real needs.


MAKING CHANGES

Where I come from the common cocoon is having a trade and hitting the pub after work each day. 20 years can go by, 30, 40, and you realize your life was just the same day on repeat. I made a conscious effort to break away from this. And it was hard.

As a youth and a young adult, when I wasn't out raising hell with my mates, I was a fairly shy person. But I knew there was more out there in the world -- and I also knew that if I was going to experience it, I'd have to just grab my private parts and jump.

The University of California at Berkeley

I managed to do it through higher education -- some years after finishing high school with zero fanfare. Education and the hunger for knowledge grew in me and gave me greater confidence and a belief that anything was possible.

In 1988 I took a plunge that changed everything: I crossed the Pacific to Berkeley, California, to attend college as an exchange student. That is a story in itself. But the point is, it was very hard to do but I knew I had to, and wanted to, do it.

I've never looked back.

But it's not as if I'm a paradigm of heroism. I'm just another bloke. And if I can slip the noose and move about the world and challenge authority and seek the truth and blaze away in this blog and do okay as a writer/journalist and see life at its highest and lowest, well, imagine what you can do!

If we are going to change the world for the better, WE have to change for the better. We have to take heart, have conscience, find our footing, and reach out. We have to have hungry minds and generous hearts. Above all, we have to have the courage to remove ourselves from our cocoons.

And it's never too late.


JERSEY JOE WALCOTT

One of my heroes is a boxer named Jersey Joe Walcott. I've been a fight fan all my life and Joe is one of my favorites.

Walcott became heavyweight champion of the world back in the days when there was only ONE champion for each weight division (and not a bunch of phony boxing associations with their own champions).

But what made Joe truly remarkable was his persistence: He had been a professional fighter for 21 years and challenged for the title four times before finally winning it in 1951 when, at the extraordinary age of 37 years and 168 days, he knocked out Ezzard Charles.

That takes a lot of guts. And so does shedding your cocoon and deciding you want to make a difference in this world. But make no mistake: We can make the world a better place. For everyone.

In the end, all it takes is belief in yourself.

Take care and never stop swinging,
Adrian Zupp

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