They said it was a record that would never be broken. Ever. Lou Gehrig was a Hall of Fame first baseman for the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1939. He was twice voted as Major League Baseball's Most Valuable Player, played in the World Series seven times (winning six times), won the Triple Crown (awarded to the player who finishes first in batting average, RBI's, and home runs), and was an All-Star seven consecutive years in a row. He had a career .340 batting average and hit 493 home runs. He is one of only 20 players to ever hit four home runs in a single game. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 and was the first player to have his uniform number retired by a team, when his number 4 was retired by the Yankees. But he is perhaps most remembered for his durability, which earned him the nickname "Iron Horse". Gehrig played in 2,130 consecutive games.
Gehrig's consecutive game streak ended on May 2, 1939. His consecutive game record would stand for for 56 years, broken by another Hall of Famer, Cal Ripken, Jr, who would go on to break Gehrig's consecutive game record in 1995. Gehrig stunned fans and teammates alike when he voluntarily took himself out of the line-up due to an undiagnosed ailment. He would later be diagnosed with the incurable neuromuscular disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (now sometimes referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease"). He officially retired shortly after removing himself from the line-up, and the New York Yankees - and really all of baseball - honored him with "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" on July 4, 1939. Gehrig ended the day with his now legendary farewell speech, in which he stated, "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth."
Gehrig's final words in the speech are incredibly poignant, "So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for." Call it luck if you want, but Gehrig also chose to view all of the positives in his life instead of the negatives. He had every reason to be angry, or even depressed. His disease had robbed him of his career and perhaps everything that made him great. His disease dramatically changed his life and would eventually rob him of that too. Yet, he still looked back on his life and felt he was lucky. He felt that he was fortunate. Life was good.
We can learn a lot from Lou Gehrig. Even if we may never be faced with a serious or even fatal illness, how Lou Gehrig chose to live out the rest of his life is something that we can all learn from. You only have one life to live, so make it a good one. Count your blessings. Stay positive, even if or when things all around you are falling apart.