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Billy Mills: The Dream That Refused to Die There was a time when a young man sat alone in a hotel room, convinced his life had no meaning and no future. The pain of loss, rejection, and loneliness had become so overwhelming that he saw no place for himself in the world. That young man was Billy Mills. Born in 1938, Mills was a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation and grew up on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, one of the most impoverished regions in America. Tragedy struck early. His mother passed away when he was eight years old, and by twelve he had lost his father as well. In just a few years, he became an orphan. Before he died, Billy's father left him with words that would stay with him forever: "Your wings are broken now, son. But one day, you may soar with the wings of an eagle." Those words became a guiding light. Billy discovered a talent for running and eventually earned a scholarship to the University of Kansas. Yet success did not shield him from prejudice. On one occasion, a photographer preparing a team picture reportedly told him to step aside because of the color of his skin. The rejection cut deep. Combined with years of hardship and discrimination, it pushed him toward one of the darkest moments of his life. Alone in a hotel room near Louisville, he came close to giving up entirely. Then something happened. Whether it was memory, instinct, or something spiritual, he felt his father's presence. A single word echoed through his mind: "Don't." Instead of surrendering, Billy grabbed a pen and wrote down an impossible dream: "Olympic gold medal. 10,000 meters." At the time, there was no reason to believe it would ever happen. He wasn't the world's best runner. He wasn't even considered a serious Olympic contender. But from that night forward, he chased that dream with everything he had. Around the same period, he met Patricia, the woman who would become his wife in 1962. Through every challenge, she remained a source of strength and stability in his life. After college, Mills joined the United States Marine Corps as an officer while continuing to train. His path was anything but easy. He battled hypoglycemia and diabetes, conditions that often drained his energy during long-distance races. Yet he remained determined to compete in the event many believed he was least suited for: the 10,000-meter run. Against the odds, he qualified for the 1964 U.S. Olympic Team. Few people paid attention. His personal best was nearly a minute slower than the world record held by Australia's legendary Ron Clarke. When the team arrived in Tokyo, some officials didn't even consider him important enough to receive the same level of equipment given to expected medal contenders. Billy Mills was not expected to win. On October 14, 1964, nearly forty athletes gathered on a damp cinder track inside Tokyo's National Stadium. From the start, Ron Clarke drove the pace hard. One by one, runners fell behind. Amazingly, Billy Mills stayed with the leaders. As the race entered its final stages, only three men remained in contention: Clarke, Tunisia's Mohamed Gammoudi, and Mills. Then disaster struck. While navigating through lapped runners during the final lap, Mills was bumped and lost momentum. Gammoudi surged ahead. Mills dropped back. His blood sugar was crashing. His vision began to blur. The cameras focused on the favorites. Nobody was watching Billy Mills. Then, with roughly 100 meters remaining, he glanced toward another runner and believed he saw the image of an eagle. Instantly, his father's words returned: "The wings of an eagle." A thought flashed through his mind: "I can win." Mills moved into an open lane and unleashed the most powerful sprint of his life. The television commentators were still describing the battle between Clarke and Gammoudi when analyst Dick Bank suddenly shouted the words that would become famous: "Look at Mills! Look at Mills!" In an astonishing burst, Mills flew past both men. He crossed the finish line first. Time: 28:24.4 Olympic Record. Not only had he won gold, but he had shattered expectations and produced one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history. To this day, Billy Mills remains the only American ever to win Olympic gold in the men's 10,000-meter run. After the race, he searched for the runner whose uniform supposedly displayed the eagle. There wasn't one. No eagle had been there. The image existed only in his mind. The strength he needed had been within him all along. Mills' remarkable journey later inspired the 1983 film Running Brave. He entered multiple halls of fame and received numerous honors throughout his life. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal. More than half a century after his victory, he returned to the Olympic stage in Paris in 2024 to donate his historic Team USA tracksuit to the Olympic Museum. Yet Billy Mills often says the greatest reward was never the gold medal. It was healing. The race in Tokyo helped him overcome years of pain and self-doubt. It proved that the dream he had written down during his darkest hour had been worth believing in. In keeping with Lakota tradition, Mills chose to share his blessings with others. In 1986, he co-founded Running Strong for American Indian Youth, an organization that continues to provide food, water, housing assistance, and opportunities to Native communities across the United States. Today, Billy Mills continues to inspire people around the world. Alongside Patricia, his wife of more than six decades, he has spent his later years encouraging young people to dream beyond their circumstances. His greatest victory was not defeating Ron Clarke or Mohamed Gammoudi. It was defeating the voice that told him he didn't belong. And after winning that battle, he dedicated his life to making sure others never had to fight it alone.

My grandfather in Florida sits in an armchair for eighteen hours a day. He tells me he feels like a discarded ghost. In Tokyo, an 83-year-old retired carpenter stands at a four-lane crosswalk at 7:30 AM. Green volunteer sash. Bright yellow safety flag. At 7:40 AM, forty elementary school children turn the corner. They don't ignore him. They run toward him like he is a rock star. "Good morning, Grandpa Kenji!" "Look at my new eraser!" The old man beams with fierce, protective pride. He raises his yellow flag, steps into the road, halts three lanes of city traffic with one hand, and high-fives every single child as they cross safely. In America, we put our elderly away in facilities to die of loneliness. In Japan, we put a flag in their hands and make them the guardians of the future. He doesn't have an empty life. He has forty reasons to wake up before dawn.

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For years, I believed a higher salary automatically meant a better life. More money. A bigger house. A nicer car. More vacations. More freedom. That was the formula. Work harder. Earn more. Upgrade your life. Simple. Then I actually lived it. I had the job with more responsibility, more pressure, more expectations, and a bigger paycheck. From the outside, it looked like success. People assumed I was doing well because the numbers on paper said I was. But what they didn't see was how exhausted I felt. I would wake up already stressed about the day ahead. My mind never switched off. Work followed me home. Even when I wasn't working, I was thinking about work. Sunday stopped feeling like a day of rest. It became a countdown to Monday. Every notification felt urgent. Every problem felt like it belonged to me. The money was better. My quality of life wasn't. Now my situation is different. The salary is lower than what many people would consider impressive. I don't have a job title that turns heads. But when I finish work, I can actually leave work behind. I can sit with family and be present. I can spend time with friends without checking emails every few minutes. I can enjoy a quiet evening without feeling guilty for not being productive. I laugh more. I sleep better. I feel lighter. And that's when I started questioning something most people never stop to think about: What if the goal isn't to make the most money possible? What if the goal is to build the best life possible? Because money absolutely matters. Anyone pretending it doesn't is being dishonest. Money pays bills. Money creates opportunities. Money provides security. Money can reduce a lot of stress. But after a certain point, every extra dollar seems to come with a question: What am I giving up in exchange for this? More income? Or more anxiety? A bigger house? Or less time at home? A higher salary? Or a life spent constantly recovering from work? That's the part nobody talks about. I still want financial freedom. I still want to own a home. I still want to earn more. But I no longer believe that chasing the highest possible income is automatically the smartest decision. Sometimes the most expensive thing you can lose is your peace of mind. So I'm curious: What's a decision you made in real life? Did you choose more money and more pressure? Or less money and more peace? And looking back now, would you make the same choice again?

Great essay from Sam Harris on the “last time” for everything (from Waking Up App) — transcribed by @bot Many here might not think highly of him any more, but he’s a clear thinker on many subjects — even if you don’t agree on politics. **Transcript — The Last Time (Sam Harris)** [0:00] I'd like you to take a moment to think about all the things in this life that you will experience for the last time. Of course, there will come a day when you will die and then everything will have been done for the last time. [0:15] But long before you die, you will cease to have certain experiences, experiences that you surely take for granted now. If you're a parent, when is the last time you will pick up your child, or tuck her into bed, or read her a story? [0:36] Our youngest daughter still says, aminals instead of animals. And though I'm a stickler for words, I am not correcting her. Each one of those is priceless. Now thinking in this way lends a poignancy to everything, even to things that you don't like. Again, let's say you're a new parent and you're getting woken up several times a night by your baby. That's brutal, but there will be a last time. And knowing that can change your experience in the moment. There's something sweet even about this experience. It's possible that you will miss this. We do everything a finite number of times, and yet we tend to take even beautiful moments for granted. And the rest of the time we're just trying to get through stuff. You're just trying to get to the end of whatever experience you're having. tim urban, who writes this wonderful blog titled @WaitButWhy, often touches this topic. He actually publishes a poster which represents 90 years of life in weeks. Each line has 52 squares, and there are 90 lines on a single page. And the scale is frankly a little alarming to contemplate. Each week is a significant piece of 90 years, and you can put your finger on the current week in your life. You can see where you are, and then of course you realize you have no assurance of how many weeks you have left. Assuming that you have 90 years, certainly 90 good years, is generally not a safe assumption. What you can know, however, is that each time you do something, pleasant or unpleasant, that is one last time you will do it. And there will come a time when you will have done something the final time. And you will rarely know when that is. For instance, I used to love to ski, and I now haven't skied in well over a decade. Will I ever ski again? I have no idea. But I can assure you that the last time I took off my skis, I was not even dimly aware of the possibility that it might be the last time, right? That I might live for many, many more years, and yet this stood a good chance of being the last time I would ever ski. When is the last time you swam in the ocean or went camping? When is the last time you took a walk just to take a walk? As you go about your day today, consider, everything you're doing is like this. Everything represents a finite opportunity to savor your life. On some level, everything is precious, and if it doesn't seem that way, I think you'll find that paying more attention can make it seem that way. Attention really is your true source of wealth, even more than time, right? Because you can waste time being distracted. So this is just to urge you to take a little more care. When you meet someone for the first time and you shake their hand, pay a little more attention. When you thank somebody for something, mean it a little more. Connect with your life. And mindfulness is the tool that allows you to do that, because the only alternative is to be lost in thought And every time you notice that you're lost, that you're distracted by a thought about the past or the future, and you come back, you are training your mind. And it may feel like an effort at first, but eventually it's like continually waking up from a dream. And ask yourself, how much effort does that take?

🍰 BrownDust2 | Lydia’s Birthday 🎉 Happy Birthday to Lydia, the rookie spearman of the new mercenary group! 🎉 “You came at the perfect time! Could you take a look at my journal? See? I wrote ‘Best Day of My Life’ in huge letters right here! Until last year, I was such a fool that I spent my birthday training without even realizing what day it was... But this year, I circled it on the calendar and waited for today! Thanks to your trust, I managed to finish my training with this old wooden spear... And more than anything, I’m being congratulated by someone very precious to me. I’m so, so happy! Thank you!” #HappyBirthday# #Lydia#