Do you know anything about cerebral palsy? It is a permanent disorder of the development of movement and posture resulting in activity limitation. There is no known cure for cerebral palsy. So a cerebral palsy patient can only be treated to prevent possible complications arising from such a disorder.
We would have thought that someone with such a weakness would not be able to be active. He would not have been able to do what most normal children could in the field of physical performance. Well, perhaps, he could still develop some other talents with certain parts of his brain and his voice. But, we could not have imagined that a person with cerebral palsy could have performed physical deeds most of us would have been incapable of although we have normal healthy bodies.
Today, I wish to write on such a man, a man who had to spend some years from the age of six to the age of fourteen in a hospital for surgeries and to learn how to use crutches, yet eventually performing incredible physical acts and noble deeds few had any courage or inclination for.
According to Jerry Traylor, the beautiful act of caring holds great significance in his life. Not only were his parents caring. He tells of the numerous cares he had received in so many ways. Besides the love shown by his mother, Marilyn, his father, Tom, his three sisters, Janet, Judy and Debra in so many ways, there was so much love, care and encouragement from others such as casual acquaintances, good friends, educators and professional healthcare providers. His appreciation for their love, care and encouragement was the motivation that drove him to not fail in their expectations; to be able to do whatever he could with whatever he had. And the effort put in by him was tremendous and so admirable.
The obstacles were many. The obstacles which he overcame were so many and so painful, his success in overcoming them was so incredible that it arouses such overwhelming admiration for him in me. I just had to write about him so that more people can be the richer from having known that such a man exists and from benefitting from his deeds and inspiration.
One of the obstacles Jerry had to overcome is quite common, existing even in the lives of healthy normal people. When he was young, he compared his disability with others and it was painful to think that he could be missing so much in life through cerebral palsy. It was always the urge to compare with others. When we compare and we come out the loser, we feel so much smaller and so pained. The poor compares with the rich. The weak compares with the strong. The disabled compares with the abled. And the list goes on.
For Jerry, he turned his weaknesses into strengths. It is no wonder that one of my great teachers, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale whom I have told you about in my earlier post, in his radio broadcast, The American Character had this to say about Jerry, “"Building a career as a motivational speaker, Jerry Traylor has prepared himself by becoming a motivational doer: That way he is more convincing when he tells people what it takes to achieve difficult goals for they know he has achieved many." And through his motivational speeches.Jerry has reached out to every corner of society to help people discover their own potential.
Jerry was just as human as any other person but the difference is that he overcame his pain with the understanding that all of us are unique individuals, each with different talents and each with a different mission in life. With that understanding, he found his mission of spreading the word of God, the mission of giving care and inspiration to everyone and the mission of showing others that there are still things that can be done with whatever God has given us. That is one truly noble vision turning into his mission. And I know everyone who has known him will rise above every problem to reach for their own stars just as he had. What an incredible person you are, Jerry Traylor.
And do you know what this incredible man did? After so many surgeries, he attempted to walk with crutches. The first few faltering steps he took lead to a fall. The caring ones got him up onto his feet and from then on he walked, ran, jumped and danced to become one of the greatest inspirational motivators of our time.
Fantastic and unimaginable that he did not only walk but “run a mile in nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds”. Forget the time but how many of us had run a mile? Well, this man not only ran a mile, he jogged across America, covering 3,528 miles from San Francisco to New York City and ran 35 full-length marathons. And to top it all, he climbed and ran up Pikes Peak, covering 14, 000 feet! Wow! What a man! Fit, strong and healthy, I may be but those are some of the things I have yet to try. How about you? And he did it all with those crutches.
We would have thought those would have been sufficient to make him outstanding in any crowd. Well, he did much, much more. Can we ever imagine a man with crutches skiing,….. skiing? …yes, skiing down the Colorado mountains. Unbelievable! Fantastic!
As though those feats were not enough, he demostrated his own courage by parachuting from 12,500 feet, jumping out from an airplane. We must ask ourselves: Since Jerry with his crutches can do it, why not us?
To spread his message of care and love, his message of utilizing whatever God has bestowed upon us, he even wrote a book, 'Live CAREfully' which is a glimpse into his life. It contains stories of how caring can mold and change lives. It tells how others have caringly put him on the road to his mission to inspire.
We are all astonished by his determination to perform, the iron-will to succeed and his success in becoming the most wonderful inspiration to all mankind.
In his journey to be the incredible great motivator that he is, he has brought out the goodness in many. One of them is the remarkable Thomas K. Fenton, the Vice President of the Fenton Art Glass Company who took the initiative to contact Jerry and wrote to the Rotary Club as well as actively making Jerry’s run across America a reality. This is one of the men whom Jerry praised despite his own greatness. There have been many, many other lives Jerry Traylor must have touched and enriched.
(Blogger’s note: Go the the internet and search for Jerry Traylor to read in even more detail about this incredible man, Jerry Traylor. )
To buy his book or organize a talk for him, the contact number is:
TELEPHONE (480) 837-9408
FAX (480) 837-4564
E-mail Jerry at: givetalk@aol.co
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