\n![\"winners2\"](\"https:\/\/ldsledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/winners2_thumb.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEd Connelly lurched and stumbled along the marble hallway, grimacing at the effort of walking and holding the heavy books in his twisted and gnarled hands. He fell into a chair in my freshman law school class, his tongue between his lips, fumbled with his notebook and finally got it opened, then gripping a ballpoint pen in his fist made big jagged marks on the page for his notes. The whole class watched his struggles.<\/p>\n
He looked up, his eyes shining at his recent victory at being able to make it from the parking lot, up the stairs, and down the long hall to the classroom. He was positively merry! My heart melted.<\/p>\n
Ed was born with severe cerebral palsy, as bad a case as I have seen and still be independently mobile. You couldn\u2019t watch him eat. Every move he made was headed in the wrong direction until he forced his rebellious body to somehow finally get the spoon somewhere near his mouth, or to stop one foot from ramming into the other as he fought his way along.<\/p>\n
He smiled and laughed in a choking sort of way when he was not trying to rein his willful body into behaving. He barreled along life using what he had to work with, and made it very well.<\/p>\n
He finished law school and set up his own private practice in 1960, and the last time I saw him was in the late eighties. He was still practicing, and seemed as happy as anybody else. Ed is a prince among men.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all about winning.<\/p>\n
Jim Girard, a fraternity brother, and one the most handsome men I have ever seen, had no use of his legs. They were literally rags. His upper body was Herculean, and he could walk on his hands faster than I could run. He overcame, married, has children and is and doing well.<\/p>\n
Stephen F Hawkin, total body paralysis; President John F. Kennedy excruciating pain every day; Franklin D Roosevelt, crippled; Michael J Fox, Lou Gerig\u2019s disease; Christopher Reeve, quadriplegic. None gave up. How many more could I list?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all about winning.<\/p>\n
William Ernest Henley was in the hospital for over a year in horrendous agony, having his leg removed from tuberculosis of the bone. He suffered all of his life in grievous pain, yet he wrote Invictus while he was in the hospital:<\/p>\n
Invictus<\/strong><\/p>\nOut of the night that covers me,<\/em><\/p>\nBlack as the Pit from pole to pole,<\/em><\/p>\nI thank whatever gods may be<\/em><\/p>\nFor my unconquerable soul.<\/em><\/p>\nIn the fell clutch of circumstance<\/em><\/p>\nI have not winced nor cried aloud.<\/em><\/p>\nUnder the bludgeonings of chance<\/em><\/p>\nMy head is bloody, but unbowed.<\/em><\/p>\nBeyond this place of wrath and tears<\/em><\/p>\nLooms but the Horror of the shade,<\/em><\/p>\nAnd yet the menace of the years<\/em><\/p>\nFinds, and shall find, me unafraid.<\/em><\/p>\nIt matters not how strait the gate,<\/em><\/p>\nHow charged with punishments the scroll.<\/em><\/p>\nI am the master of my fate:<\/em><\/p>\nI am the captain of my soul.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat is the difference between these men and others?<\/p>\n
They deal with it. They ride over it. They know they are not their bodies and that they are spiritual beings. They have something to do and a reason to do it and will not let anything stand in their way.<\/p>\n
There is a winner in each of us.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all about winning. It is not about not losing. There is a huge difference.<\/p>\n
Jack Chandler, in\u00a0Dawn\u2019s Revenge<\/em>; Riggs McCall, in\u00a0Command Influence<\/em>; and Nimrod Woodbine, in\u00a0Nimrod\u2019s Peril<\/em>, are faced with challenges that would cow most men. But they are winners and refuse to give up, realizing that win or lose, the only way out is the way through. To read about these three winners, mouse over the Novels menu tab at the top of the page, and read two free chapters each.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I found and loved this post in LD Sledge\u2019s blog, and thought it was worth sharing it here with the Patheos community. Ed Connelly lurched and stumbled along the marble hallway, grimacing at the effort of walking and holding the heavy books in his twisted and gnarled hands. He fell into a chair in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[570,571,572,3,569],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-disabilities","tag-intention","tag-overcome","tag-scientology","tag-winning"],"yoast_head":"\n
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