Paralympics and the power of encouragement

Quote

“…that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” 

      Alfred Lord Tennyson

News

The Paralympic Games of London 2012 drew to a close last weekend, leaving many acknowledging that the event has done more to change attitudes towards disability than any number of educational programmes or equal rights campaigns. 

A subtle transformation took place among crowds in the packed venues, as they watched people whom they previously considered as different and marginalised overcome their handicaps spectacularly, to triumph in one of the 20 Paralympic sports.  No longer were these unusual athletes defined by their disability but by their extraordinary ability.

The Paralympics had perhaps had an even greater emotional impact on the nation than the Olympics.  Commentator Steve Cole wrote, ‘A journalist who had been cynical before the Games wrote about how it had taken him a while to realise why he was so emotionally caught up in the euphoria of the Games.  He then acknowledged that he had never been in an arena where everyone was 100% encouraging.  80,000 people from many of the world’s nations encouraged every single athlete from every nation, whether they were first or in last place.’

Changed attitudes lead to changed relationships, and maybe the biggest dividend from these Paralympic Games will be a growing understanding, respect, appreciation and friendship between the able-bodied and disabled.

Yet the greatest lesson to be learned from the last fortnight, perhaps, concerns the power of encouragement.  When a person decides to seek the best for another as the paths of their lives overlap – for an afternoon of sport or a lifetime of relationship – then they can literally ‘put courage into’ the one facing hardship, difficulty or fear.  Who knows how many people’s life outcomes might change if they could only receive the right encouragement?  

Read on…

The father of the Paralympics was Ludwig Guttman, a Jewish doctor who fled to Britain from Nazi Germany early in 1939 and later became director of the first specialist spinal injuries unit in Britain.  Read Jeff Fountain’s brief account of this unsung hero here.

Walk the talk

In your heart do you feel disabled in some way, by some choice or event in your life, and thereby excluded from the company of others?  Why not go to a trusted friend and bring this into the light, giving him or her an opportunity to encourage you?

The last word

From the Bible, Hebrews 10, verse 25: ‘Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.’