This past January 17th, 2012, the most famous human being on earth turned 70 years of age. It is very difficult for many people to believe that Muhammad Ali, the omnipresent former three-time heavyweight champion of the world is indeed seven decades old. We find it hard to accept this fact because to accept it means we must also accept that we have also grown old, and that is not an easy thing to do. No one likes facing his or her mortality. It is a necessary but unwelcome task. Ali faces his own mortality every waking moment due to the severity of his Parkinson’s disease. He does so without complaint or even a hint of bitterness. Ali is uncommonly brave even as he ages. Ali is also completely devoid of self-pity. He often tells people who look shocked at his appearance, “I don’t feel sorry for myself. So, there is no reason you should either.”

Ali’s biggest opponent these days is not Parkinson’s disease, as most people tend to think. Ali’s biggest and toughest opponent is the younger 22 year-old version of himself, forever frozen in time, on film, in his youth. Ali has always been uncommonly brave. Growing up in the Deep South in Louisville, Kentucky in the 1940’s and 50’s, Ali felt the racially motivated constraints of a very biased society. After he won the title in 1964 in a huge upset over Sonny Liston, Ali did something that he had always dreamed of doing ever since he was a young child. He decided to be himself in public. He expressed it succinctly after his conversion to Islam in 1964. Ali said, “My new name is Muhammad Ali. I am free to be who I want to be. I do not have to be what you want me to be anymore.” As was always the case, Ali backed up his words with actions. Ali was and still is, a man of honor. He means what he says and, more importantly, he says what he means.

I feel compelled to disclose the fact that when it comes to Muhammad Ali, I am a very biased reporter. I love Muhammad Ali. I loved him when I was five years of age in 1965, and now at the ripe old age of 51, I still love him. This is one thing I hold in common with eight billion other human beings. Ali is able to make the world come together as one single entity, a rare skill indeed. He never uses this skill for personal gain or to further any political or even religious cause. His most fervent wish is for everyone in the world to love each other, the same way they love him. He believes the world would be a better place for it. He is right.