facing up to the challenge
Quote
standing up to the challenge
I was searching for the lyrics of one of my favourite U2 songs, Miracle Drug, when I came across a little bit of the back story and how the song came to be written in the first place. Quoting Bono:
We all went to the same school and just as we were leaving, a fellow called Christopher Nolan arrived. He had been deprived of oxygen for two hours when he was born, so he was paraplegic. But his mother believed he could understand what was going on and used to teach him at home. Eventually, they discovered a drug that allowed him to move one muscle in his neck. So they attached this unicorn device to his forehead and he learned to type. And out of him came all these poems that he'd been storing up in his head. Then he put out a collection called Dam-Burst of Dreams, which won a load of awards and he went off to university and became a genius. All because of a mother's love and a medical breakthrough.
I was really intrigued and decided to look deeper into Christopher's story
He was born with cerebral palsy, from birth complications, and writes using a special computer. His mother, Bernadette Nolan holds his head in her hands as Christopher painstakingly picks out each word, letter by letter. He communicates with Bernadette, his father Joe and sister Yvonne and close friends - mostly using his eyes as a signal system.
My first thought was, what a strong woman his mother is. She didn't give up, even faced with such impossible odds. I wonder if I could be so strong if I was in such a position. I don't know if I could. Could you?
Many heroes begin as ordinary people. When faced with a calamity, somehow they find the strength to face up to the challenge. The spirit of resistance makes them admirable, because they have the courage to change themselves. Maybe that is the hardest thing to change. It is easy to preach, but hard to practise. Being good is an accumulation of everyday acts, persisting throughout a lifetime. I think that's what makes a hero for me. Not someone who does one off things.
Which brings me to talk about one of my favourite heroes. Terry Fox. Fox was a Canadian, born into an average home, an avid athelete, and studied in Simon Fraser University to become a PE teacher. However, when he was 18, he was diagonosed with cancer of the right knee. The only treatment at the time was amputation. So when he was 18, Terry Fox lost his leg, and given a prosthetic leg.
Terry didn't let the loss of his leg interfere with his life. In fact he decided to run from coast to coast in order to raise money for cancer research. This was the legendary Marathon of Hope, and Terry's goal was to raise $1 from every Canadian Citizen.
Fox began by dipping his leg in the Atlantic at Newfoundland. He intended to dip it in the Pacific when he arrived in BC. His plan was to run about 42 km (26.2 miles) a day, the distance of a typical marathon. No one had ever done anything similar to the task Fox was undertaking.
Fox was unable to finish his run. X-rays revealed that Terry's right lung had a lump the size of a golf ball, and his left lung had another lump the size of a tennis ball. The lumps were not lung cancer; rather, they were bone cancer that went into his lungs through his bloodstream. He was forced to stop the run after 143 days. He had run 5,373 km (3,339 miles, or around 23.3 miles per day) through Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.
Terry Fox died one month before his 23rd birthday. The Canadian population at the time was 24 million, Terry Fox's Hope run raised more than 30 million dollars for cancer research, and is now held as an annual event with millions of participants.
Don't think that just because you are just one individual the things you do everyday won't make a difference. Take a little feeling out every day, to care about the issues around us. Wether if its global warming, AIDs in Africa, the violence in Burma or just helping out a neighbour with mowing the grass, you are making a difference.
Last thing today: have you ever heard of sand bubbler crabs?
Well they are little crabs about 2 or 3 cm big each. And each night, they come out on the beach and make little sand balls as they lick off the microbes in the sand.
The tide comes in and washes away the sand balls all the time. But, in a few hours, a colony of 50 or so sand bubbler crabs can do this:
