by Richard Stern

Every now and then, a remarkable person breaks out of a social prison, and spends her liberation returning like Socrates to the dark cave to redeem as many of the still-manacled as he or she can. In recent times, many of these redeemers have been women, for in much of the dark world, women still bear the heaviest chains. Today The NY Times tells the story of the tiny Kenyan marathon champion, Tegla Laroupe. Tegla learned to run on the dry hills of northwest Kenya so that she would not be late for school after the morning chores which her chauvinist father piled on her. Against his will and that of the contemptuous, domineering cruelty of his male peers, Tegla not only went to school but began entering and winning races. Supported by her sister Albina, she went on to win the NYC marathons in 1994 and 1995. She won the last one days after Albina died from undiagnosed hemorrhaging. "There was no hospital within miles," said Tegla, who now is helping to build one. She has set up a Peace Academy to encourage the warriors of her tribe, the Pokot, to exchange their guns for top-notch athletic training, and she wants to help Pokot girls, brought up as she was to think they are worthless, to know that they are capable of living full lives. Her marathon winnings have gone into these great causes, and 33 year old Tegla devotes herself to the very difficult task of raising funds for them. The same edition of the Times reports that Willem de Kooning's painting of a woman (Woman 111) with huge, machine-filled breasts, immense shoulders, claw-like hands and a cruel, sly face has been sold to a hedge fund billionaire for $137.5 million dollars.