Some people are amazing

[dennis thompson]

The other day I was flipping through the channels & came across the Para- olympics hockey game. These men were all paralyzed from the waist down & playing hockey sitting on what looked like small skate boards with runners instaed of wheels. What a determined and inspiring group of guys.

I also got a calendar in the mail from the "Mouth & Foot Painting Artists" association. These are people who have no use of their arms & paint beautiful pictures with the brush in their mouth or feet. The paintings are absolutely amazing. Just shows you what some people can overcome.

Here I sit worrying about how to get the rust off my jointer table, makes me realize how good I have it.

Dennis

[Joe Chritz]

The personal fortitude to never give up, no matter what, is not a unique thing but it is very inspiring and amazing to observe none the less.

Believe me that not everyone deals with adversary so admirably or successfully.

As a hockey player (generally twice a week) I can't imagine how physically and mentally demanding the para-Olympics hockey must be.

Joe

[Mitchell Andrus]

I know first hand Dennis.

I grew up going to Nova Scotia on vacation. 3 to 5 weeks to the family house. There my mom befriended a local artist, Earl Bailly who had polio as a kid. He painted with a brush in his mouth.

http://www.southshorenow.ca/southshore/history/lunenburg/The%20amazing%20artistic%20talent%20of%20Earl%20Ba illy.php

My mom is an artist and studied with him (he gave lessons to help pay the bills) and has quite a few pieces including the only known self-portrait.

I will never forget this man and his brother Don who tended to him his entire life.

Good weather and bad he ran his chair up to the center of town and sat holding court outside the bank. He talked to anyone who had a few minutes... and the stories he'd tell of trips to see the Queen, to the '33 World's Fair......

Quick Bio:

At the age of six, his father put a pencil in Earl's mouth, and he began to draw. From there, the world unfolded for the young quadriplegic. He learned to paint by holding a brush in his teeth. Until his death at 74, the artist created hundreds of awe-inspiring works.

In 1933, Bluenose sailed to Chicago as a special guest at the World's Fair. Earl Bailly and his brother, Donald, were signed on as crew for that trip by Captain Angus Walters, legendary skipper of the "Queen of the North Atlantic".
Earl Bailly graduated from the Nova Scotia School of Art in 1957 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from St. Francis Xavier University in 1972.

Earl Bailly's work has been represented in the National Gallery of Canada; Warm Springs Foundation, Georgia, USA; Dalhousie Art Gallery; Philadelphia Art Alliance; Four Arts Society, Palm Beach, Florida; many private collections and the Earl Bailly Art Gallery in Bermuda.

During his productive lifetime, Mr. Bailly was presented to both Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I had the privilege of working at the U.S. Paraplegic Veterans Olympics early last fall in Spokane, WA. I saw some people with smiles on their faces, determination in their eyes and a model for all who think life has dealt them a bad hand.

Think of this......John Wesly Powell...the leader of the band of men who first took boats down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon lost his right arm in the Civil War.

In the fall of 1977, I installed a CT scanner in St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, OR. One of the 1st patients scanned on it was a older cowboy probably in his late 60's or early 70's. Thin, but strong, tough looking...the quiet gentleman walked into the exam room and climbed up on the table. They performed a head CT exam on him. A radiologist and I were in the control room observing the images as they reconstructed and popped up on the display monitor. When it was over the radiologist looked at me and said "Would you look at that.....30% of his brain is consumed by a tumor. If your CT scanner had that much wrong with it......we wouldn't be doing this exam and you'd be trying to fix it and this gentleman just walked in and climbed up on the table!"

The human mind and determination is a wonderful and mysterious thing!

[dennis thompson]

Mitch
Glad to see I finally got you off the goats:rolleyes:
Dennis

[paul cottingham]

If you ever get the chance to watch it, I recommend the movie "murderball." It follows men who are quadraplegics who play wheelchair rugby. It has a lot of swearing but it is a truly inspirational film.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Mitch
Glad to see I finally got you off the goats:rolleyes:
Dennis

Each time I read this it takes on a whole new meaning.
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