"The sleep of reason produces monsters"

~Francisco de Goya

But the ongoing life story chronicled at kddallam.com shows a rare instance where the monsters brought on by the sleep of reason (and very wakeful greed and neglect) failed to completely triumph.

Katie Dallam is a remarkable woman for whom tragedy struck in the boxing ring in her debut match. Through the utter callousness and neglect of the referee, fight doctor, and fight organizers that fateful night, Katie faced a much more experienced fighter who doled out punishment over 4 and a half brutal rounds (which included 141 blows to the head) that could easily have sent her to a much too early grave but for the grace of God. Though the ruptured cerebral artery that the beating and slow response of the ring doctor and staff on the scene left her with did not take her life, it certainly shattered it.

A born fighter, having fought all her life from troubled childhood until that fateful night, she fought through what was certain death, and awoke from her coma thus beginning a much tougher fight for recovery. From the resultant traumatic brain injury she had to relearn all aspects of her life, from who she was, to how to take care of herself. Her frustrating war with words and recovering her verbal expression turned her towards artistic expression, which prolific during her recovery and rehab eloquently describe her inner world.

I found Katie's site and her story completely by accident (started looking up information about an upcoming fight, and eventually ended up here) and it couldn't have been a happier one. I stumbled across this site from simply looking up the date and card information of a women's boxing match taking place in Providence later this month. Drawn by the sexy allure of tough women, brutal yet feminine tomboys, I kicked around Google and the pages of wban.org until I quite inadvertently stumbled across Katie's website and her story.

Thus what started as idle post-workday browsing the web for titillation in the end brought me to one of the most incredible stories I've ever read. It brought me tremendous inspiration and hope. Read her story, look through her tremendous artwork and be inspired yourselves.