Define Greatness

I’ve been browsing the blogs looking for a certain article and I came across this very good post that expresses exactly the reasons for my obseesion for football and for the one and only ,Theiry Henry. Only him and Garry moore's guitar gets me fired up. but this post is not only a recognition to my utter admiration to the french sensation, but also an explanation why guys like Henry will propably live forever???

Here it goes:

“Many people are good; few are great. At their best, sports show us what greatness is and inspire us to be better- to strive for the greatness which is as much part of the perfection of humanity as goodness is. Today, I sat and wore a TH14 replica jersey and watched the surpassing greatness which is the French soccer player Thierry Henry. If you’ve not seen him, you’re missing out- he almost single-handedly made me a fan of his sport, and he possesses the sort of terrifying and awesome- in the true, archaic sense of that word- greatness which is readily apparent even if you have no particular idea what’s going on in the game. This man is blessed with inhuman kinesthetic senses and agility, the speed of a track star, and an astounding ability to judge objects in motion equaled only by the best quarterbacks and basketball players.

I don’t know if Thierry Henry is a good man. He seems good enough- devoted to his wife and child, soft-spoken, dedicated, comes off very intelligent even in his second language- and I’ve no reason to suspect him to be any different than he presents himself. But I know that he’s great; greatness as a quality shines forth, and in sports finds a platform where it can be shown off to best effect. Many men have great reflexes, many men have great speed, many men (well, not many) have Henry’s sort of kinesthetic sense. Very few- maybe only one other in the world, Ronaldinho- have taken those gifts and honed them, married them to skill and used them to be truly great in their field. That’s what greatness is- the marriage of natural ability to hard, hard work and dedication. You can see it every time Henry blasts a free kick from far out into the upper corner with millimeters to spare; you can see it when Juninho blasts one from almost at the half line, when Ronaldinho slashes through a defense with a devil’s grin and an unbelievable shin-cracking dribble, when Jamie Carragher or John Terry lands a perfectly timed tackle, when Iker Cassillas or Gianluigi Buffon or Jens Lehmann make perfect flat-out diving saves. It’s fuckin’ amazing; it’s greatness.

How can that not inspire you? How can you watch that and not want to tear into the streets after greatness yourself? I’ll never meet Thierry Henry in my life, but he’s done me a huge favor just by being himself. I will never have a fraction of his kinesthetics, never be that fast no matter how much I run, never in my life be able to curl a ball that way. So what? My field is psychology, and some day I may be the best alive at that. I have the talent, and I work my ass off to get there. I do it for myself and for my sense of the good, but when things are hard on that road I look to the people who inspire me and no one does so more than Thierry Henry. Greatness isn’t about a given field- it’s about an approach, how you tackle life and your role in it, whether you grab hold with two hands or content yourself to drift along into the nearest safe harbor. Sports give us a chance to watch people competing for greatness with clearly defined rules on a huge stage; and that has value. When the guy in the next cubicle really nails that reports he’s been working on for a week, when a scientist really nails that new vaccine she’s been working on, that is also greatness, but it’s not publicly visible. When TH14 hits that ridiculous backheel goal he scored last year, it gets replayed a million times all over the world. Manchester United’s stadium, Old Trafford, is called “The Theater of Dreams”, and as pretentious as that sounds and is, it’s also basically true.”

Thanks brendon , You said it all man.

Me in my idol's t-shirt