At ten I was playing against 18-year-old guys. At 15 I was playing professional ball with the Birmingham Black Barons so I really came very quickly in all sports.

But I was so wrapped up in sports growing up as a kid that I think I was going to grow to be a pro ball player. But I found out real quick that was not going to happen.

He hits it long. His shoulders are impressively quick through the ball. That's where he's getting his power from. He's young and has great elasticity.

As athletes we're used to reacting quickly. Here it's 'come stop come stop.' There's a lot of downtime. That's the toughest part of the day.

Once boys' and men's challenges are clear the question 'why now' quickly becomes 'why didn't we see this sooner?' The answer? Virtually every society that survived did so by socializing its sons to be disposable.

A society that has made 'nostalgia' a marketable commodity on the cultural exchange quickly repudiates the suggestion that life in the past was in any important way better than life today.

If you grow up in the South Bronx today or in south-central Los Angeles or Pittsburgh or Philadelphia you quickly come to understand that you have been set apart and that there's no will in this society to bring you back into the mainstream.

Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the world we were young in.

When Fortune smiles I smile to think how quickly she will frown.

Those who weep recover more quickly than those who smile.