To conspire to inspire

I swam next to a man with no legs at the gym today. He had only torso and arms but did laps right alongside me. I was frightened and suddenly overwhelmingly appreciative of my limbs. In that moment they were absolute perfection. I began to swim for the simple reason that I was able to, with all my limbs and all my strength I kicked not to exercise but to move.

I have a friend who is a quadriplegic, and he recently wrote a piece for a blog about his condition, cerebral palsy, and how he is opposed to people calling him inspiring. This man is smart, an extremely talented writer, his piece is refreshing (see link below) and it got me thinking. In it he says he did not choose his condition and says that he is not an inspiration, pointing out just how much pressure that statement carries. Does it though, what does it really mean to inspire or be inspiring? All the things on my list of what inspires me (if I were to make a list) are inanimate or wild.
When you see a disability either you feel pity or inspired (among possible other emotions), and pity is, well pitiful. This legless man did nothing to inspire me, but his creepy situation made me grateful for mine. Therefore, as much as I know he did nothing inspiring, he just got on with his life, I was inspired.

How many people have the ability to do something but do nothing? How many of us use what we have and make the absolute most of it? It is not often you a see a perfect physique, yet we all have the ability to sculpt our own. It is not often you meet someone who uses all of their brain, do you? Of everyone who can walk, how many wake up beaming with joy purely because they have that ability?
Sometimes when we see someone in a situation a lot worse than ours, doing something with their lives it inspires us, mostly because we think we couldn’t handle their situation. Most of us do not fully use what we have and appreciate our bodies, our health, our minds and our mundane abilities until we are reminded that some people have to cope without them. Although quadriplegic and not trying to inspire, he inspires just by reminding others to appreciate what they do have.

We all deal with our share of abilities and disabilities in our own right. Those that do something are inevitably inspiring. Rather inspire than create envy. A tanned hot chick with a perfect body and photographic memory doesn’t make many feel inspired, they often make you feel inadequate and reach for the cookies.
I never thought a legless man would inspire me. It is usually just the sea that does that. Life, the two sided, up and down, hot and cold life we lead, is made by all the things we wish we could do without.

Link to blog as mentioned just click here