If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably figured out that I’m not exactly a “glass is half-full” kind of guy. I don’t consider myself overly negative or pessimistic (although I’ve certainly been accused of both by friends and family), but I do have a painful awareness of the worst-case scenario, if that makes sense.
That’s why I find the late Christopher Reeve so endlessly fascinating and, to employ the shopworn cliche, inspirational. He was a guy who ended up in the worst imaginable worst-case scenario, and yet somehow, he endured. No, that’s not quite correct; he rose above it. Not only did the accident that paralyzed him fail to destroy him, it actually made him a better human being. And his accomplishments after the accident were at least as impressive and important as the ones he’d achieved before it.
Consider the following list, taken from an article about Bret Michaels and other celebrities who set examples of courage and dignity in the face of potentially devastating health problems:
In his “Still Me” memoir, the cinema “Superman” recounted his rehabilitation, admitting that initially, he considered suicide because he thought his life was over. However, he:
- wrote two best-sellers,
- directed two telefilms,
- produced and starred in a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,”
- received multiple Emmy nominations for his acting and directing work,
- traveled across the United States giving speeches,
- established the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation to speed spinal cord injury research and aid sufferers,
- co-founded the Reeve-Irvine Research Center,
- was instrumental in pioneering a new form of therapy that has accounted for a number of paralyzed patients becoming able to walk again,
- made the cover of Time,
- won a Grammy,
- and shattered ratings records for CW series when he guest starred on “Smallville.”
I’m not ever going to become a Pollyanna who always looks on the bright side of life. That’s just not me. And frankly I despise that simplistic aphorism about what you should do when life hands you lemons, because oftentimes those lemons are too small and hard to squeeze enough juice out of them to make any damn lemonade. But this list definitely suggests that you can find some use for the little buggers. Even if it’s just turning throwing them back at the smug jackass who gave them to you in the first place…
