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{"id":4287,"date":"2011-06-12T01:47:35","date_gmt":"2011-06-12T05:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/?p=4287"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:43:45","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:43:45","slug":"words-of-wisdom-see-the-potential-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/06\/words-of-wisdom-see-the-potential-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Words of wisdom: "See the potential gift.""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cA couple of years ago, I spent a bunch of time in Tibet and I came home. And I went to go get my mail. My mailbox is at the end of my street, so I parked my car and started pulling my chair out. And this little girl rode by, probably like 6 years old, on her little pink bike, streamers coming off her handlebars, and she said, \u2018What happened to your legs?\u2019<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I said: \u2018I was a ski racer here at Middlebury, and it was my first day of Christmas vacation. I went to the mountain with my brother, met up with a bunch of friends, took a couple of runs preparing to train, and my ski popped off in the middle of the turn. And I fell in the middle of the trail, and I broke two vertebrae.\u2019<\/p>\n

She said, \u2018So you\u2019ll never walk again?\u2019 And I said, \u2018No, probably not.\u2019 As she rode away, she said, \u2018That\u2019s too bad.\u2019<\/p>\n

I wish that I had stopped her because if I\u2019d never had my accident I never would have been the best in the world at anything. I wouldn\u2019t have turned a hobby into a profession. I don\u2019t think I would have had the guts to get up in front of you and talk. Wouldn\u2019t have acted in a soap opera. I wouldn\u2019t have met presidents and heads of state.<\/p>\n

But that little girl saw the tragedy; she didn\u2019t see the potential gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Skier Chris Waddell, commencement speech, Middlebury College.<\/p>\n

Read other commencement excerpts. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"