soul sister...Dara Torres

Dara Torres, 41, left a pack of 21- and 22-year-olds in her wake and dominated the 50-meter freestyle in an American record time of 24.25 seconds. Everyone else was about a body length behind.

You want to know more about Dara? Breaking a world record is great and everything, but admit it, you do want to know about her life, right? Well, she has a 2 year old daughter, she's been married and divorced, twice, and has a boyfriend, serious but not cohabitating.

She's proof that the hard times can make you stronger. They strengthen you physically, emotionally and mentally while they make you more of who you are.

Almost every morning I give thanks that I'm strong again. I admit that I grin at being the fastest one in my workout group and when a guy in the group tells me that I'm making him look bad, I kinda like that, too. I also admit it that I really like it when they call me the fastest gal in Team TexFx. It isn't pride, not completely anyway.

I like it because I remember when I used to fall down when I started running again. I remember when I had no balance and when my muscles were soft and got tired quickly. I remember how I would wince in pain every time I moved my left arm. I would wince so much that I winced when I just thought about moving it.

But one day, you wake up and know that you don't have to be the person who was tossed about in the wind. It's time for a change. Get strong. Recover. Wake up. Move past the wounded time and move into being more of who you are.

The secret is I don't care a bit if I'm the fastest or strongest one there, I just want to be fast enough and strong enough to know that I'm back, for me.

I think Dara knows what I'm talking about.

Ingrid Betancourt released

Bogota, September 2005 - Juan Carlos Lecompte, husband of Ingrid Betancourt, senator kidnapped three years ago from FARC - (c) Contrasto










Thanks to some tricky Colombian spies, Ingrid is out of the jungle. Spies tricked leftist rebels into handing over Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors Wednesday in a "daring helicopter rescue so successful that not a single shot was fired."

How did they do it, you ask?

Wearing Che Guevara t-shirts, spies infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the hostages, aka Cesar, to believe they were going to take them to the guerrillas' supreme leader.

I admire sneaky, tricky rescue plots.

Next, the hostages were taken, with hands and feet bound, to a rendezvous spot where two other spies, disguised as helicopter pilots for a relief organization, but who were really Colombian military agents who also fly helicopters, were waiting. The hostages were loaded onto the helicopter and up it went.

Then, the spies told them, 'We're the national army. You're free."

In Ingrid's words: "The helicopter almost fell from the sky because we were jumping up and down, yelling, crying, hugging one another. We couldn't believe it."

I would have loved to have seen that very moment.

The operation, said one of the agents , "will go into history for its audacity and effectiveness."

Audacious and effective, I wish for more of both among good hearted people of the world.

"We wanted to have it happen as it did today," added armed forces chief Gen. Freddy Padilla. "Without a single shot. Without anyone wounded. Absolutely safe and sound, without a scratch."

I've been following Ingrid Betancourt's story for years. A former presidential candidate, she was captured in 2002. Her dual French-Colombian nationality brought worldwide attention to the plight of hostages held by the rebels.

From the wires:

"I feel very guilty for taking a decision that has brought my family so much suffering, including the death of my father," she said, fighting back tears. "But during all these years, I've come to the conclusion this was my destiny."

Betancourt looked healthy as she disembarked from a plane at a Bogota airport wearing military fatigues and a floppy camouflage hat.

"They used the pain of our families to pressure the entire world," she said, adding an appeal for FARC to release about 700 estimated hostages still held captive.

Betancourt forgives her rebel captors. "Nobody is at fault."

I admire her for many reasons. The wife of the French President could have had a much easier life, yet there was something she felt she had to do and she couldn't just set it aside and leave it to someone else.

Happy Independence Day, Ingrid.

I'm just in from a week of teacher training and a celebration happy hour and I'm happy that tomorrow is Friday and there will be fireworks.

Davy Scares Goliath, and good...

It was close...I was following the game, but due for my date at 8. I arrived, curious about the game, and hungry for dinner after a late afternoon run.
Talked about the game, had a great dinner, saw a man a few tables away with a laptop, I couldn't help myself, made friends with him, then asked:
"Any news on the Duke-Belmont game?"
"I'll look it up for ya."
He looked it up for us and read from his screen, impassioned, like a sports commentator:
"No. 15-seeded Belmont was beating No. 2 Duke. Belmont, the Atlantic Sun Conference school with zero NCAA tournament wins to its credit, was leading Duke, the Atlantic Coast Conference school with three national championships on its resume.
And yet it was not to be.
Using every last one of Gerald Henderson's 21 points, including the go-ahead basket with 11.9 seconds left, and one key steal by DeMarcus Nelson, Duke barely avoided what would have been a monumental upset, edging Belmont 71-70 in the first round of the West Regional."
My date remarked, 'they couldn't have won by any less..."
Good point.

I say a 1 point victory for Duke was a win for teeny tiny Belmont.

A very good date, a very good game and a very good Thursday.

The tiny team that almost won and by almost winning, winning.

Upset Alert! Belmont Hanging Tough Against Duke!

In the 2nd half: Belmont 43 at Duke 51

As one of my homeless friends said:
"I saw Glory Road, anything can happen..."

Davy Meets Duke...

Tonight, the little college that could, Belmont, #14 seed, plays Duke, the well funded number 2 seed in the NCAA championships.
Belmont is just 'Happy to be here'and is not exactly predicting an upset of Duke.

more here:

The game is tonight, 7:10 p.m.

Go Bruins!
Go Team!
Go Belmont!

Elizabeth Avellan

Elizabeth Avellan is amazing. She has my respect and admiration for her work as well as for being a wonderful Mother. She's also an incredibly nice person. Read this article about her in the NY Times.

The Ann Richards' Effect

Way back when I strapped my baby into her little frontpack and walked the blocks of my Fort Worth neighborhood, passing out fliers for Ann Richards campaign for governor. My neighborhood then was marginal, slightly crime-ridden, during my time in Fort Worth I was burglarized, robbed at gun point, and had my car broken into numerous times. Still, I wasn't afraid, everyone loved Ann Richards and wanted to talk about her. Those were desperate times in Forth Worth, Texas. The real estate market was crashing, companies were leaving, and to add to that, it was one of the hottest years on record.

Ann Richards gave me hope. She wasn't afraid to speak up, to have people make fun of her or call her "brash" and "loud." She said what needed sayin.

Now, here she goes again, inspiring hundred of young girls in Austin. The new Ann Richard's School for Young Women Leaders will open in the Fall. Kat and I were at orientation, passing out information about our summer film camp and the after school film club Kat will be leading. It was really something to see the girls walking around talking about the organic gardening club, the engineering club, music, art, and even yoga classes.

I'm thrilled that I'll be part of this summer camp program at a school named after one of my personal heroes. I'm proud that Austin has such a school and I can't wait to meet some of the girls who will be going and seeing what they do next.

Dovie Sue Williams Schoolfield

The family gathered Thursday and said "goodbye for now" to the woman who held the heart and soul of our family.

In with the sadness was the absolute gratefulness that we got to know her and have her in our family as long as we did, 88 years.

As my cousin Anna said, "she could make a bed in a minute flat and loved to dance to 40's music in the living room." As my brother said, "she made everyone feel like they were the most important person in the room." As my cousin Nate said, "she taught me everything I needed to know about God by how she lived her life."

After a simple service, Annalise sang Granny's favorite hymn, "In the Garden", giving it a bit of a country feel, then we all went back to my parent's house, which is on the same patch of land as the log cabin my Grandmother was born in, to have dinner and tell stories and be together. We also got to ride the very tired, very fat, very patient farm horse, Dakota, and many of us got stickers and burrs all over our clothes when we walked out in the pasture that evening to watch the stars come out.

doin our best...

My Grandma Dovie used to say, " all you can do is your best, and that's a lot." She raised three boys, all born within a year or two of each other. Only 17 when she had my Dad, her first, and my uncles followed soon after. They could afford three pair of Levis for each boy, one to wear, one to wash and one ready for the next day. She always had three pair of jeans drying on her clothesline.
When her kids grew up, she opened her own business. When my grandpa had a stroke, she cared for him until he died. Through it all, she was active in the Baptist church, the Southern Baptists, the spaghetti dinner, love your neighbor Baptists, the kind that brought food over when you needed some home cooked comfort, the kind that spent more time doing for people then judging people. Grandma was a doer, she always did her best.

She and my grandpa visited me when I lived in Wales, the three of us had quite an adventure touring the U.K. together. While grandpa and I talked about our favorite British poets, grandma would be out talking to people about their kids. When I had Annalise, too young, too barely married, she and my grandpa became our biggest fans, they didn't care about the crumbling marriage, or the fact that I was soon to be divorced, they knew I was doing my best, just like they always told me.

She still does her best, even in her nursing home. Alzheimer's took part of her away, far away, still she sits and tells stories, talks about what she's going to do and how much she loves everyone. The nurses love her, they call her lovey dovie.

"All you can do is your best, and that's a lot. Make your mistakes and move on." Some days are full of mistakes, or obstacles or turning points, some days lay before you like a perfect paragraph, just keep on going.