Making the most of life

The main purpose of a marching band is to provide visual entertainment for football audiences. I've seen them make stars, faces, words, spirals and random shapes and patterns. They add horn flashes, flag tosses and new uniforms to enhance the visual effects.

Each member of the band has hundreds of spots mentally marked on the field and can see the exact same route to take to get to them each time to form a new picture. Patrick Henry Hughes is one of those members, though he doesn't know his spot or what the picture looks like.

If you haven't heard by now, Hughes is a trumpet player for the University of Louisville Marching Cardinals. He was born blind and unable to fully extend his limbs. He learned to play the piano before he learned to speak. More of his story appears on page 10 of this magazine, but I wanted to praise him just a little more than that space would allow.

Hughes has overcome his disabilities to realize all of his abilities. Search his name on Google and you get 420,000 hits. Yahoo gives you 6,390,000. There are dozens of videos showing him or praising him on YouTube. He has a sweet Kentucky drawl and a genuine love for life. He has excelled at piano, singing, the trumpet and life. He is an inspiration.

Another inspirational story highlighted briefly in this issue is that of Sahara Aldridge, the 13-year-old girl who died in November after a long battle with cancer.

Among the many readers and friends who followed her story and mourned her death was Rick Springfield. We caught up to him to ask about his new album and Sahara's influence on him.

She was an amazing young lady. That is evident in the stories written about her, the songs written for her and the looks from anyone who met her.

Both of these people show the importance of every moment in life and challenge us to make the most of it.