Page 68 - WhoAreWe...

pull my van over to the side of the road, tears streaming
down my face.

Why, I asked myself, is this affecting me so violently? I
was a big fan, sure, but I did not know him personally and
while being reasonably sad was expected, especially for the
loved ones he left behind, my reaction seemed particularly
extreme. So I sat there and thought about it, deeply, opened
my mind, and it came to me clearly, like a vision. We didn't
just lose a baseball player, we lost a spiritual leader, one
who if have lived longer, could have brought much spiritual
growth to the world, and to have lost that opportunity
forever was nothing short of tragic for the entire
community that knew him. We had lost a very strong
spiritual force and teacher of the way forward in life.

So how was Tony Gwynn a spiritual leader you ask? What
crystallized in my mind was that every now and then,
someone finds themselves in a position in which they have
multiple opportunities for the public at large to easily hear
what they have to say, easily witness the things that they do,
and clearly see how and why these things were done.
People who find themselves in this position have a choice
to make. They can either go about these things in a neutral
or even selfish way, or they can make the more difficult
choice to do the hard work of always doing the right thing,
to not succumb to human greed, maintain personal integrity,
and purposefully give back freely to the community around
them.

They lead by example, and that example is automatically
through their celebrity put on display for all to see,
understand, and hopefully for folks to emulate. They are in
effect teaching many people simultaneously not only how
to do the right thing, but that it can pay handsomely in the

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