I was afflicted at birth with cerebral palsy, brain damaged, for life. 'There is nothing we can do for him,' said the best Canadian medics. 'He'll have to be institutionalized. Probably he'll never walk or talk. The chance of education can't be discussed now.'
My parents rebelled and took the law into their own hands. I was put on a highly regimented schedule of intensive therapy. Over a year later, after further tests, the same experts concluded, 'We will all be amazed by the eventual improvement in this child.'
I continued to defy prophecy after prophecy: 'won't get past grade nine' - I graduated from university; 'won't get a job' - I have worked for 20 years in computers. I am now a consultant, designing systems for some of the biggest financial institutions in Canada. I have tasted the inebriating liquor of success.
Success has given me more downs than ups. Doctors who have studied the records of my early diagnosis have described me as an incredible physical specimen. On the other side of society's ledger I have been mistaken for a drunk, seen as a social misfit. This can be devastating.
As I entered my profession after university, I knew there was a limit to my ability to figure out how to beat the odds. I began hitting the pain zone, daily.
Affliction is a kind of death - and all the worse because there seems to be no reason to it. The good life, which is advertised as the birthright of everyone, is denied to one. The afflicted person, left in a void, unappreciated and trapped by circumstances beyond his control, feels every right to be bitter. Questions - why me? - go unanswered. A compassionate God seems a sick joke.
For a good part of my life I existed in no man's land, possessed with the desire to be normal and left alone, brewing the poison of self-pity in reaction to the day's character assassination.
Thankfully, I have found a different path.
Instead of taking holidays, I have used my vacations to explore the living values of other people - if it wasn't England, it was Italy or Israel. I started taking time off to travel, jumping from place to place in my search.
I learnt from the values, lifestyle and faith of people at L'Arche in France, Findhorn in Scotland, the Ark in Akron, Ohio, the Home for the Dying in Calcutta, in communities in British Columbia, Upper New York State and Caux, Switzerland. I discovered that the leper can be filled with joy, the so-called mentally retarded person can be more than just happy, the victim in a wheel-chair can be an inspiration to the walking wounded and unfulfilled.
These people embodied a wisdom and strength which allowed them to live beyond their afflicted state, to be more than conquerors.
Today as I read the newspapers and watch the news I understand that there is no need to travel to visit the afflicted. People are in despair. Science, technology, government and financial scheming have failed them miserably. Communism has lost its self-serving statehood, but its alternative can't provide bread. Recession is epidemic in the West. The American dream has the AIDS virus. Here in Canada an atomic cultural explosion threatens to blow the country apart. No one, it seems, can get their act together.
Life is a challenge whether you're born with cerebral palsy or born to be king. Whether you're yellow or white or spotted with leprosy, are called deaf or dumb, rich or poor, read from the Bible, Koran, Gita or the ancient tales of your people, there is an overriding power which loves each one of us. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven' transcends our afflicted self-centredness.
What is amazing about life is not what we have or what we accomplish, but the fact of an omnipotent grace which embraces all, regardless of race, stature, intellect or nationhood. Living in unison with the eternal spirit lifts man above the pain of his misunderstandings.
By BOB PAINTER
