Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee, photo by Kristina Austin Scarcelli

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
His hand can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.
Now you see me, now you don’t.
George thinks he will, but I know he won’t.
-Muhammad Ali

As you almost certainly know, Muhammad Ali passed away over the weekend. You may not know that Ali and his family lived in Berrien Springs, Michigan for years after his retirement from boxing.

Mitch Albom has a nice column about Ali’s unique blend of ego, principles, and deep compassion:

Let there be no argument. The man who just died was the most famous face on Earth. I contend he still is. Name a rock star, athlete or politician whose visage is instantly as recognizable in a New York boardroom, an African village or a Bedouin tent. We’ll save you time. There is no one. And remember, Ali achieved such worldwide fame without computers, without Internet, without DVRs or YouTube.

He did it through the magnificence of his boxing, the magnitude of his personality, and the causes he championed at a time when sitting down was more common than standing up.

…High-profile athletes rarely took such stances and certainly not with such consequences. It was a mark of Ali’s sense of principle and perspective (he famously claimed that the Vietnamese never called him the N-word, never put dogs on him, never lynched him, etc.) that while many Americans — and understandably, Vietnam vets who did go and fight — reviled him during those years, most have come around on him in time. I believe it is because he never wavered. He took his punishment. And he showed, in his later years, that his anti-Vietnam stance wasn’t a singular moment. He did things on principle for decades. He stood up for poor people. He was a civil rights advocate and champion. He gave a voice to young African-Americans in the 1960s and a hero to their children in all the years that followed. He also raised tens of millions to fight disease.

Read on for lots more at the Freep.

Kristin caught this bumblebee and a monarch butterfly sharing a snack at the National Wildlife Refuge in Seney. See her photo background big, view more in her Scenic Michigan slideshow, and visit her website at KristinaScarcelli.com.