Ending up in a wheelchair.......

I was reading an interesting article in this weeks Jewish Chronicle, written by a guy who got a brain injury last year while visiting Romania. Its a sombre tale of bad luck and misfortune , but ends on a good note as he describes how he is functioning again and getting better every day. The whole experience does sound rather grim to be honest, and he is far from back to his old self, and probably never will be, but we all have our own personal sorrows dont we? Anyway the last sentence he wrote that he was lucky because he could have ended up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.......

I read and reread this sentence a couple of times and then started to get that prickly feeling of irritation. I mean why do people judge that using a wheelchair is the worst possible thing that can happen to anyone? Id have thought that lack of legs was far preferable to a brain injury but who am I to say? Frankly its not the worst thing that could have happened to me or to lots of people I know but sadly society seems to think it is, so we spend our lives being seen as being brave, or stoic, or marvelous or anything else you'd care to mention. Take it from me, wheelchair use is not the worse thing that can happen to you in life but Im sure that losing the essence that is you could be.