I love December. In part because as the youngest, it was my job to arrange the nativity set. Little did my mother know that the hours, and I mean hours, I spent arranging and rearranging that set taught me my first lessons in sculpture. My passion for nativity sets and the hope and significance of the Christmas season continues.
But I have also learned to love December, because I can count on ESPN to play over and over Jimmy Valvano’s ESPY speech. It stops me in my tracks every time. Like Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech, and Kennedy’s "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". Because I know, without a doubt, that if I do what Valvano suggests I will have the grounding that I will need for life and for making good, meaningful art. He said:
"I'm a very emotional, passionate man. I can't help it. That's being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we kiss, we love. And when people say to me how do you get through life or each day, it's the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.
. . . Don’t give up, don’t ever give up."
- Jimmy Valvano
Recipient of the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian ESPY Award, March 4, 1993
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