We are the kind of people who obsess over one word… but we have only one shot to get it right in concert. It was hard the first time I practiced with them. I was so nervous that my vocal chords were paralyzed for about a half-hour.
I’ve never been tall. So it’s not like I was six-foot, got paralyzed, and now I’m in a wheelchair. It doesn’t really faze me all that much.
I do recall one moment when I went to India by myself. I was paralyzed with fear to travel alone, but I had this intuitive hint that I had to do it. It was transformative and beautiful.
The crowd intimidates me, its breath suffocates me. I feel paralyzed by its curious look, and the unknown faces make me dumb.
People get in auto accidents, they’re paralyzed for life. I got hurt worse getting married.
I still remember March 31, 1981, when a deeply disturbed John Hinckley Jr. took aim at President Ronald Reagan and fired shots that hospitalized the Commander-in-Chief and two others, and left his Press Secretary James Brady paralyzed for life.
I’ve seen many politicians paralyzed in the legs as myself, but I’ve seen more of them who were paralyzed in the head.
My family knew, but most of the sporting world did not realize that my right hand been some 75% paralyzed.
When faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralyzed daughter. Her lifeless hands led me; I think her tiny feet still know beautiful paths.
When I was four or five, I had an older brother who got paralyzed from the neck down in junior high school. Some kid did a wrestling fall on him and hit his spine. We had to take care of him. I went from being the baby to not really being the baby anymore.
When I broke my neck, I was told that I came within a millimeter of dying or being paralyzed from the neck down. When it happened, I was numb on one side. In spite of how serious they were telling me it was, I never took it seriously. I kept saying it’s going to be OK, I trained too hard to get hurt. Which is silly.
We’ve taken on health care in a big way in our office, ever since nine years ago when I was paralyzed. I was in eight different hospitals, three different rehab centers, and all the rooms were dreadful. As an architect, designer, and patient, I can do something to help.
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