tannen maury / european pressphoto agency
tannen maury / european pressphoto agency

We were knocked out by this fragment of an interview with Tammy Duckworth in the Sunday New York Time’s Magazine. She’s the United States Representative for Illinois’s 8th congressional district who lost both legs while a U.S. Army helicopter pilot in the Iraq War:

Question: When you wake up do you feel a sense of loss when you realize what happened to your legs? 

Of course. But I have a different perspective for what my legs are now. Now they’re just tools, you know? If I still had my legs, I would be in line for a battalion command, and instead I’m flying a desk.

We were mulling Duckworth’s ability to shift her view in the face of daunting obstacles and find a way around them – to be SO resilient – when, as often happens, we found a similar idea resonating in our Inbox. A reader sent us this astonishing BBCvideo of Jessica Cox, who, born without arms, lives fully and richly —even flying a plane— using her feet as hands.

Both Duckworth and Cox figured out how to fly, despite all obstacles.

(Video link here.)

Related posts: sue austin’s wheelchair: ‘re-envisioning the familiar’
whitehead’s 2012 paralympic 200m gold: breathtaking
pianist derek paravacini: ‘good comes out of bad’
‘nothing is impossible’ defies ‘disability’

If you’ve found illumination, joy, or inspiration in this post, please consider supporting Improvised Life. It only takes a minute to make a secure donation that helps pay our many costs. A little goes a long way towards helping Improvised Life continue to live ad-free in the world.

Support Improvised Life ♥

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *