A true
story about athlete Glenn Cunningham who was horribly burned in a school house
fire at the age of 8.Doctors predicted he would never walk again. Determined to
walk, Glenn would throw himself off his wheelchair and pull his body across the
yard and along a fence. Twenty-two months later, he took his first steps and
through sheer determination, learned to run despite the pain…
The little country school house was
heated by an old-fashioned, pot-bellied coal stove. A little boy had the job of
coming to school early each day to start the fire and warm the room before his
teacher and his classmates arrived.
One morning they arrived to find the
school house engulfed in flames. They dragged the unconscious little boy out of
the flaming building more dead than alive. He had major burns over the lower
half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital.
From his bed the dreadfully burned,
semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking to his mother. The
doctor told his mother that her son would surely die – which was for the best,
really – for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his body.
But the brave boy didn’t want to
die. He made up his mind that he would survive. Somehow, to the amazement of
the physician, he did survive. When the mortal danger was past, he again heard
the doctor and his mother speaking quietly. The mother was told that since the
fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body, it would almost
be better if he had died, since he was doomed to be a lifetime cripple with no
use at all of his lower limbs.
Once more the brave boy made up his
mind. He would not be a cripple. He would walk. But unfortunately from the
waist down, he had no motor ability. His thin legs just dangled there, all but
lifeless.
Ultimately he was released from the
hospital. Every day his mother would massage his little legs, but there was no
feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he would walk was as
strong as ever.
When he wasn’t in bed, he was
confined to a wheelchair. One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the
yard to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw
himself from the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs
behind him.
He worked his way to the white
picket fence bordering their lot. With great effort, he raised himself up on
the fence. Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence,
resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a
smooth path all around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he wanted
more than to develop life in those legs.
Ultimately through his daily
massages, his iron persistence and his resolute determination, he did develop
the ability to stand up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk by himself – and
then – to run.
He began to walk to school, then to
run to school, to run for the sheer joy of running. Later in college he made
the track team.
Still later in Madison Square Garden
this young man who was not expected to survive, who would surely never walk,
who could never hope to run – this determined young man, Dr. Glenn Cunningham,
ran the world’s fastest mile**!
Story
Told By Burt Dubin,
Developer of Speaking Success System.
Developer of Speaking Success System.
**On June 16, 1934, Glenn Cunningham
ran the mile in 4:06.8 minutes, breaking the world’s record. His effort
portrays that whatever you want to create in your life is yours for the making.
As long as you desire it enough and allow your will to guide you, you can have
and be whatever your heart desires. The only one that can put limits on our
personal will is ourselves. Develop and encourage your will to create and all
the forces of nature within and without will help you bring your desire to
pass.
No comments:
Post a Comment