Barney
Tonight's episode is about Barney Miller. An Australian man whose spirit will always and forever be my inspiration. Here goes.
The other day I drove home for a quick lunch when I found Fras watching a documentary on Garage. Garage is the ONLY channel on, when I'm not home. And being a channel that only shows surfing, snowboarding, skating etc, I don't always pay attention at what is on when I come home. This time however, I walked in and soon enough my ears started really listening to the documentary that was on. It was about Barney Miller. A young man who was left paralysed at 20 years old after a life changing car accident. Barney was a super active young bloke always keen to ride a wave or a snowy hill. And yet here he is stuck on a wheelchair. The reason why Barney's story has come to light, since he is not the first one and unfortunately not the last one to have had to deal with the devastating consequences of a car accident, is because Barney is a dear friend of Mick Fanning's. The two met one day at the beach at one of Mick's surf competitions. They have been inseparable ever since.
For those of you who are not into surfing, and don't really know who Mick Fanning is, well, you are sitting at a computer right now, or holding your smartphone, so there, the internet is right in your fingers. Mick is a World Champion at surfing with an incredible story to tell. And in his darkest year to date, enters Barney.
When Barney met the love of his life he decides to defy science, medicine and pretty much gravity if he can, when he decides to learn how to walk again. Barney was a quadriplegic and was told he could no longer use his arms and legs again. Barney makes it his mission to learn how to use all four limbs. The entire documentary is about his journey, which is still going on, and about how Barney learnt how to stand, kneel, so he can propose to his girlfriend and dance at his wedding. An incredibly inspiring, heart throbbing but also painful documentary to watch. And Mick is with him every step (literally) of the way. Holding him up, encouraging him to work through the pain. He takes him surfing with him-yes even if he's paralysed, he is still out there surfing the waves lying on that surfboard, and we're winging over bumps and bruises sometimes.
When Mick publicly went through a horrible year what with his divorce, his brother's passing and an almost brutal shark attack at the surf finals in South Africa a year ago, a moment I personally watched live on TV as it was happening, there was Barney to inspire him to never, ever, give up. And here is Barney to inspire us to never, ever give up. I wish you take a moment to check out Barney's story and ponder over the fact that if a guy like him who is about to defy science, medicine and doctors, can do it, and not take no for an answer, why can't we? What's stopping us from achieving the impossible? What is impossible anyway? How do we know it's impossible? Have we tried it to know? Ah. Tick the box first. Try it. Then label it 'impossible'. Or will you?
I showed Barney's story to my English class the other day to pass the message to my kids that whatever we may go through, whichever battle we have to fight, all we need is one person to support us the whole way. And it doesn't have to be the family we were born into. Sometimes it's the family we create for ourselves.
Get inspired:
Barney's story http://www.youandmethemovie.com/
Long time, no read folks!
Toodles,
Katerina
No comments:
Post a Comment