I can't say I'm surprised... after witnessing the Cho brothers plow into reverse at the dubious Hanoi Hilton — falling freely into the last rung — in order to engage in a small, admirable, homage to American POWs, these two Bay Area Racers had me hooked. A more selfless, unaffected, noble pair of gentle-men would be hard to find. That Erwin & Godwin would then nearly sacrifice their skins, and a Fast Forward, so alliance mates David & Mary could avoid any possibility of elimination, well, I almost wept.

By David W. Taylor (Email The Author)
Reality Reel Media
10.27.06

The boiler room pressures and stresses of The Amazing Race that may break many a character may also bring other souls into a common harmony. I don't think we've ever witnessed such a collision of good feeling that has been swirling among Erwin & Godwin, David & Mary and Lyn & Karlyn. These are souls that have found themselves — though Lyn & Karlyn perversely remain openly hostile to just about everyone else.

Last week it was Peter who ran into the brick wall of Karlyn's wrath. (Not that anyone would blame her in that instance.) This last leg in Kuwait, however, Lyn & Karlyn both manhandled a helpful Kuwaiti gentleman, actively shielding him from sharing directional coordinates to Dustin & Kandance. As usual this gigantic waste of strategic and physical energy by Alabama — while thinking this keystone cops tactic would somehow change the Race fundamentally! — merely delayed the beauty queens for a minute or two. Another Kuwaiti man, naturally, stepped forward to assist them almost immediately. This spectacle merely served to display Alabama's rather ugly underbelly.

On another planet, flourishing with Good Karma, Erwin & Godwin sacrificed almost all in a selfless act of brotherhood with friends David & Mary. They have revealed that good Racing is the object they seek, nothing more and nothing less. A million dollars is a pitiful, tiresome chase; the real reward is to be out there in the world, living life large with Phil and Detours and Clue Envelopes and Camera Crews and Taxis... and solid-steel camaraderie. Making personal statements through The Amazing Race through personal actions and personal commitments and personal honor. And this the Cho Brothers have done.

And inevitably the spiritual laws of service and ego-less serenity played host in Erwin & Godwin's Amazing Race journey. Sending off David & Mary into their Fast Forward glory (not to mention taking the last number at the Tower Roadblock check-in), into an almost certain resurrection — while hurtling down a precipitous Kuwait Tower elevator shaft — at a possible cost of their own lives in the Race — carried the brothers into the arms of a Kuwait City police officer who heroically escorted the Chos to Souk Al-Gharabally Street and brought them within reach of waving goodbye to last place. Life teeters and unfolds from the seeds you plant.