We were all attracted to the story of Lance Armstrong winning the Tour de France last weekend, that grueling bicycle race. It is one of the great endurance races in the world today. Lance Armstrong won it in record time, two years after undergoing surgery and then chemotherapy for cancer that spread throughout his body, including to his brain.

It is a testimony first of all to the wonderful advances that medicine has made in curing cancers, but everyone recognizes as well that it is a terrific testimony to the human spirit. It was his spirit, his will, his determination that made it possible for him to have such a miraculous recovery.

Have you noticed that when the human spirit triumphs in such a dramatic way, we turn to metaphors of flight to describe it. They are the only words we seem…