The
little country schoolhouse 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 schoolhouse 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!
Moral
- "Don't be Afraid to fail", "Be afraid to TRY"
"The
Monk who Sold His Ferrari"
Regards
Dhitendra
Keep Smiling :-)
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