If you fail are you going to try again? [Archive]

ZonieDiver

12-04-2010, 22:41

I think that video has been posted here before, for I remember seeing it, and this is the only place I would see such things.

However, it is a reminder for me of the time I put away the label "handicapped" and actually accepted the term "differently-abled"!

It was many years ago, when both my daughters were in high school and we took a weekend trip to La Jolla Shores for surfing and beach fun. We splurged and stayed at the La Jolla Shores hotel - right on the beach. After a fun weekend, before our trip back to Phoenix, we were enjoying our "free" buffet breakfast on Sunday morning.

As we sat down and looked out the window toward the beach, we noticed a van parked on the hard-packed sand. The tide was out and the van was part way down from the dry sand to the surf. As I looked further, I noticed a wheelchair out in the water, with the waves lapping at the seat. This fascinated me, and I kept watching as we ate.

Shortly before we finished, I noticed a figure swiming through the waves toward the beach. There is an annual "open water" swim from La Jolla Cove to La Jolla Shores and back (I have often thought I might attempt that swim, yet have never summoned to wherewithall to try). Shortly thereafter, a swimmer approached the chair, foundering in the shallow water, he pulled himself up into the wheelchair. His legs were bound together by a rubber band, and ended above the knees.

He got in the chair, turned it around, and moved it to the van's driver's side. He opened the door, pulled himself into the vehicle, and with ONE hand reached down, collapsed the chair, and pulled it into the vehicle behind his seat. He closed the door and drove the van off the beach, onto the street, and away from my view.

Handicapped... not hardly. Differently-abled... for sure. But that I had such balls!