Michael Phelps Owns Something Bigger Than 19 Olympic Medals

This is probably going to come across as a Bible thump today but after digesting the print of the canvas it's nothing more than office place gray as can be cubical speak. If watching the Summer Olympics in London has evolved into a nightly passerby ritual you don't need a bright white church sitting on a green grassy hill to take note of them thar people's having a wall plug connection to a well crafted sense of invisible energy. Lets whip back the David Copperfield magic curtain and call the Spade a Spade: it's faith! Faith isn't a religious word! Faith in yourself. Faith in your team, country and fans is the willingness to endure the always expected let down or set back without it deflating the core of the inner body factory pumping out the juice that keeps the feeling loose. Faith... Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps crashed into a second place finish on Monday night only to return an hour later to latch onto a gold in the 4x200. How many people do you know that can fall into the ranks of second place by a fingerprint only to come back and attack the writers and directors of history? The win makes him the most decorated Olympian of all time. Faith... It's an open door to eternal truth. Which if you're trying to keep religion from being brought up is a pretty big thought to slam on your computer screen. My brother Teddy has been tremendously ill. Being mentally challenged the doctors rarely if ever speak directly to him...because if they did, instantly a vibrant feeling of Teddy Faith would engulfed their overpaid heavily educated abilities with an energy that inspires them to think not in six month terms but everlasting. Faith can hit you accidently, unexpectedly and without solicitation. You could hit up a church to find faith. But you ain't gonna find it hanging on a wall, behind the bathroom door, in a pool of baptisms or wrapped around the preachers neck hidden under that funky white collar. How many times have you checked into a conversation between brothers, cousins and husbands and someone says, "The Dude's got balls." That's faith! The faith of knowing the end result may not turn out the way Disney movies are written but nobody can take away the presented willingness to seek out. I don't know why people with great energy are called "Faithful" when in reality they're faith farmers. That secret ingredient that pushes the human mind, body and soul into areas of challenge, loss, victory and everything else we've renamed it has to be planted or willed, sought out, cultivated then protected. That pretty much sounds like my Uncle Willie in Wyoming on a giant true to life ranch blessed with herds of sheep and cattle. Like an ear of corn cooked by a Carolina hot sun; the junky junk we is be talking about can also falter. But only when the holder slips between the sheets and kisses doubt, skepticism and argument. Not with other people but rather self! I honestly believe my addiction to "Time Management" where three hours early is six hours too late is based solely on a lack of faith. I believe too much in superstition and ignorance. The moment you're introduced to confusion or a maze of contradictions every avenue linked to having that secret something something fades like a caffeine buzz. So...what do we do? We drink! We find new places to set up tents at Addictions Campground! I swear people are afraid to let what little faith they have grow, "Ohhhh I don't want to come out looking like a Jesus freak." Really? Damn if the lifetime members of doubt aren't making a call the moment the doctor says, "Hmmm we could be on the final dance." Michael Phelps has an inner flame that burns night and day. He watches over that fire. Tosses items on it that act as fuel. If the flame begins to flicker, the art of studying it makes him wise in correcting its future. No morning passes that I don't begin the path with a writing instrument loosely gripped by a right hand index finger and dopey thumb. I never know what's going to be jotted down. I never try to enforce a purpose and or rule. I just do it because the energy that jumps off that once living tree is empowering. Some days it chooses to offer a challenge, extreme deep travel, crazy weird poetry, book ideas for me to come back to when I'm 72 or it might be so whacky ass doctor like scribbled blah blah blah that's going to require science to figure out... but it doesn't matter. When you let faith breathe... nobody has permission and or the strength to walk into your day and make it rain. You are the cloud maker. You set free to the colors that light up a rainbow. You become the gold medal winner. You are the creator of your history. If you don't write it down somebody will do it for you. I will always believe in you first... arroe@arroe.net