Once, a young school boy was caught in a fire accident in
his school and was assumed that he would not live. His mother was told that he
was sure to die, for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his
body. Even if he were to survive, he would be a cripple throughout his life.
But the brave boy did not want to die nor did he want to be
a cripple. Much to be the amazement of the doctor, he did survive. But
unfortunately from his waist down, he had no motor ability. His thin legs just
dangled there, lifeless. Ultimately he was discharged from the hospital. But
his determination to walk was indomitable.
At home, when he was not in bed, he was confined to a
wheelchair. One day, he threw himself from the chair and pulled himself across
the grass, dragging his legs behind him. He reached the picket fence, raised
himself up and then stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence,
his resolve to walk undeterred. He did this every day, with faith in himself
that he would be able to walk unaided. With 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 run to school, to run for
the sheer joy of running. Later in college he made the track team.
In February 1934, in New York City’s famed 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.
An epitome of the power of positive thinking and faith in
one’s self, Glenn Cunningham continues to be an inspiration for many, and his
story, a brilliant testimony to how one can bounce back even when all odds are
stacked against one, to the extent that death seemed the preferable option.
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