Discussion»Questions»Human Behavior» What impresses you MOST about other people? Some seem to be very impressed with great wealth and great power. Are you among the some? Why?
I can be impressed by all manner of things. In the course of a long lifetime you meet many people from many different walks of life and some of them are impressive indeed. I've met world champions in two sports, actors, TV presenters, politicians, wealthy businessmen and a few others but in eighty years one man stands out.
At first glance he seems like an ordinary man but he had a disability and an attribute that made him stand out above all others. He was blind and he was irrepressible. Ched and I ran 30 km together every Sunday morning while we were training for marathons. He competed in the Hawaii Ironman (with his wife on the front of their tandem bicycle), rode a bicycle acros the Simpson Desert (on behalf of Channel 9), paddled a canoe from Australia to New Guinea for the same channel, and died of altitude sickness in the Himalayas while training to be the first blind man to climb Mount Everest.
He impressed the hell out of me, Rosie. I might write about his exploits in my blog, sometime in the next few weeks. He did a great deal more than just that.
Thank you for your very thoughtful and lively reply to my answer Didge. He sounds like someone anyone would be privileged to meet and remember. Rising above a disability he made the most of his life with apparent joy, gusto and success! Who could want more out of life than that? Happy Sunday! :)
Benedict Arnold 