Thought 04JAN2010

NOTHING COULD STOP THIS MAN
After suffering severe burns on his legs at the age of five, Glenn Cunningham was given up on by doctors who believed he would be a hopeless cripple destined to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. "He will never be able to walk again," they said. "No chance." The doctors examined his legs, but they had no way of looking into Glenn Cunningham's heart. He didn't listen to the doctors and set out to walk again. Lying in bed, his skinny, red legs covered with scar tissue, Glen vowed, "Next week, I'm going to get out of bed. I'm going to walk." And he did just that.

His mother tells of how she used to push back the curtain and look out the window to watch Glenn reach up and take hold of an old plow in the yard. With a hand on each handle, he began to make his gnarled and twisted legs function. And with every step a step of pain, he came closer to walking. Soon he began to trot; before long he was running . When he started to run, he became even more determined. "I always believed that I could walk, and I did. Now I'm going to run faster than anybody has ever run." And did he ever. He became a great miler who, in 1934, set the world's record of 4:06. He was honoured as the outstanding athlete of the century at Madison Square Garden.
Jeff Yalden - extracted from 'A cup of chicken soup for the soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Barry Spilchuk, Health Communications, Inc., 1996
Arava u susuhan da su vahay a mapsek / No one burns the house of a good man - Ivatan Proverb