The real definition of strength does not come close to mere physical power. It should include the ability to confront and overcome the most difficult challenges of life.
So it is that Julius Mercer, dear reader, is one of the strongest people I have ever known.
Once one of the nation’s premier hurdlers, this Rich East High School graduate has survived drugs, divorce, a suicide attempt and three prison terms.
I think that any one of these devastating events could have crushed the soul of another person, but somehow and some way Mercer was able to find in himself an indomitable will to escape the desolate pits of his nightmarish life.
Today, at the ripe age of 65, he is the manager of a fitness gym in Chicago and is the author of two books “A New Fire in You” and most recently “A New Fire.” The first volume details how he burned every bridge he tried to cross, yet like the mythical phoenix bird, rose from those ashes of hopelessness to inspire others. The second is a roadmap for others caught in an enormous struggle of survival.
We bumped fists at the village of Park Forest “Oscars” awards last month, where he was displaying the new book, co-written with Christopher Graul. As with every person who has his name on a book, Mercer was enthusiastic about its content and a simple message of how someone can get through the day without falling victim to drugs, alcohol and the various forms of mental torture.
“You need to get help,” he says.
It sounds simple, but Mercer knows this is a day-by-day journey on the tightrope of life. Don’t look down, always look ahead and if you fall, hopefully drop into a safety net you have weaved.
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Where once Mercer may have been seen as a fallen figure, today he is a sober citizen bent on giving courage to those who also stumble and fall.
The second son of Frederick and Elizabeth Mercer, he was an outstanding hurdler at Rich East High School and was named the school’s best track and field athlete in his senior year. But he was a less than casual student burdened with a 1.6 GPA.
Poor grades were the same story the short time he attended Kansas State University, but his athletic skills took over and, in 1984, he was in the U.S. Olympic trials as the sixth-best 400-meter hurdler in the nation. He trained hard — too hard — resulting in knee pain in his first race. He finished fourth.
By now married and living in what he said was a Los Angeles area dominated by the Crips and Blood gangs and in an area where his brother-in-law was killed, he began losing any stability he may have had.
One morning, Mercer woke up in the psychiatric center of a hospital.
“What am I doing here,?” he asked.
They told him. He was found hanging from a lamppost, his coat wrapped around his neck.
Mercer asked himself a question he could not answer.
Why?
By now the cracks in the marriage were unmendable. There was a divorce after a move to Kansas City to be close to his wife’s family.
Disaster followed. He would not see his daughter again for 22 years. He moved back to Park Forest. He believed it could be his salvation. It became his hell on earth. A few drinks and drugs could gloss over the debris of his day and the garbage of the week.
“Drugs,” he once said, “made me a monster.”
Burglaries to finance his habit came next. Caught, convicted and sentenced to short prison terms three different times before he was given an eight-year term in 2009.
“I hit bottom,” Mercer admitted.
A climb out of personal hell is never easy. He began his lifelong journey on his thread-thin tightrope as he began a battle with his demons. It is never an easy trip, but a will of steel helps him fight the demons of life.
Heroes are said to be born on the fields of play and the fields of war.
Julius Mercer walks his brave path every day.
Talk about strength!
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.