Back in 1917 Arab forces, including British Colonel T. E. Lawrence, defeated the Ottomans in a surprise land-based attack on the sleepy port town of Aqaba.  The battle probably looked nothing like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lChJz2DSpsE

Today my son called me from his hotel room in the bustling resort city of Aqaba to give an exhilarated, sleep-deprived account of his participation in the “Dead2Red” relay race from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea in Jordan.  The distance is about 240 kilometers, and his segments of the race amounted to the equivalent of about a half-marathon.  He was particularly pleased that he and his team of college study-abroad students overtook a U.N. team in the final few kilometers inside the city.

Should this give us all hope for the future of humanity?  Let’s check back in another 97 years.