Pack Creek Ranch, Moab, Utah
Cooler days and nights – first patch of Aspen trees turning in the mountains – the color of September is bright yellow – the road to town is lined with sunflowers.
POSSIBLE
It is my belief – no – it is my conviction based on my life experience, that there is more to admire and respect and honor in humanity than there is to disdain or condemn.
You must want to look for the good and praise it – and even be one who others will point to and say, “There’s an example of the nobility of the human spirit – anything is possible.”
For proof and confirmation, I watch the Paralympic Games. 4300 athletes from 160 countries this year – achieving the impossible in 220 sports.
It began with one man. A surgeon – refugee from Nazi Germany.
Ludwig Guttman. 1948. As part of his treatment of wheelchair-bound young English veterans of WWII, he suggested they could play basketball in their wheelchairs. Impossible? No.
(I pause here because there is too much to tell you in this journal. But you should know the rest of the story. Click here to read his story. You won’t be sorry if you read the history of the Paralympics.)
The first Official Paralympic Games were held in 1960. Since then the Games have become the most-watched sporting event after the regular Olympics and the World Soccer Cup.
It’s not only about the individuals who participate. It’s also the story of their families, friends, and coaches who believe in the athletes. And about the physicians, therapists and technicians who develop the necessary equipment to suit whatever impairment the athlete may have. There’s an unseen army of other human beings who believe in what’s possible.
The appropriate term for the athletes who compete is “uniquely abled” – and includes those both physically and mentally disadvantaged. Imagine the difficulty of finding parity between those with a wide range of conditions.
I am quoting from Wikipedia now:
“The allowable disabilities are divided into ten eligible impairment types: impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment, and intellectual impairment. These categories are further divided into various subcategories.”
If you watch the Games, you’ll see swimmers with no arms, athletes without legs in wheelchairs, volleyball played with all team members sitting on the floor, blind runners racing with a guide, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair tennis, high jumpers with one leg, and a ping-pong player who holds his paddle in his mouth – and wins medals! Then there’s the gold medal archer – armless – who holds the bow with his toes.
The International Olympic Committee has written its commitment to equal access to athletics for all people into its charter, which states:
“The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”
As I say, I watch to confirm my conviction that there is much to admire in the athletes who find within themselves a sense of the possible. They are the noblest form of the human spirit.
And I always have tears in my eyes for the participation of one special group of athletes: Team Refugee. As if all their disabilities were not enough to overcome, they have been displaced from their homes and countries by violence, war, disease, and complicated circumstances beyond their control. But there they are – many don’t know each other or speak the same language or have a flag or an anthem.
That’s my team.
United in the spirit of what’s finest in humanity.
Team Possible.