Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Quadriplegic
I was driving into work today when I heard on NPR a story about a man who was born as a Quad and had a friend that became one later in life--after a motorcyle accident. He was reflecting on this friend's recent death and commenting on the speakers at his friend's funeral. I guess everyone was thinking he would be able to walk in heaven because everyone, including his friend, thought his disability was so horrible. He was born with his disability and said it was more of a motivator that a punishment. He said he never knew how to respond to his friend when he was asked how he could deal with his disability. He thought he never had aspirations to ride a motorcyle, go bungee-jumping or any other activity that required legs or arms. He had other aspirations. He was still going to be in a wheelchair in Heaven (if there was a Heaven)because that is who he was and was happy being.I was sharing this story with a co-worker and she responded by telling me about the client she just visited this past morning. He is blind from a stroke and he has an active mind, travels, and has a positive outlook on life. He would bring her back books from art gallery viewings and samples of foods from his travels. To make a long story short--it made me think back on this NPR story. I guess I've always been of the mind-set that you had to have an interesting life--I guess it is an obsession. I don't think that each of us has a destiny--accidents happen that we can't control, but who we are as people will reveal how we respond to our given situations. Here on Earth or in "Heaven" or wherever I go next, there will be things that may change from what I've planned for myself, but you keep moving forward and continually work to make the road more interesting.
I never thought of it this way, but my worse fear would be to look back on my life 10, 20, 30 plus years and say, "Well, I always wanted to do 'x'" or "I wished I went to 'x' , but.."
I don't want a life that others dream up or I just accept because it takes less effort to do anything else. I just better not get hit by a bus--I have too much to do!
davisjm1 at 6:49 PM