Being Southern means carrying a responsibility to shake off the comforting blanket of myth and see ourselves clearly. - Wright Thompson

Perhaps it is almost justice, dad, that we should have to go through war every so often to pay for the peace years.

I wanted her to have my dad's sense of wonder and fairness. He always celebrated other people's success and believed that greatness wasn't a zero-sum game. You were only ever competing against yourself and your own limitations. Someone else's joy was never your sadness, he always taught us.

I profile famous and successful athletes for a living and almost no one understands that success is merely a currency to spend on one big purchase.