It’s heroic nowadays to just show up to work at nursing home or market

An extremely unscientific poll of my three 20-something children reveals that they know little or nothing about the 1981 Oscar winning movie “Chariots of Fire.” My guess is that most Americans younger than 40 would say the same.

For those who remember, you know it as the story of Eric Liddell, the Scottish runner who would not race on Sunday, was switched to the 400-meter race and against all expectations won the gold medal. He literally ran away from his competitors. You may also know that Eric abandoned a career in athletics to go to the mission field in China, where he died in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

What you may not know is that the producers of the movie did not intend to make a film and tell the story of Eric Liddell alone. Harold Abrahams was the son of a Polish Jew who emigrated to the United Kingdom before the turn of the century. Harold was the youngest…