Can Falling Sick Achieve Miracles?

Thinking You Can’t Make It?
No matter how we always fantasize about “lying around all day and doing nothing”, most of us would feel bored and aimless if we don’t go to work for more than a month.

You think it bad enough if you skip work for a week because you have a bad cold. But what if you find out that you are the victim of a chronic illness that will make you bed bound or housebound for a long period of time. Of course, you will be stricken by grief.

Frightful questions will occupy your mind, “What will become of me? How will my life be like? Will I never be able to go to work again?” Of course, people would start pressuring you into believing that you have to “think positively”.

This is called the “tyranny of positive thinking”. You would start thinking “How am I supposed not to get frustrated or discouraged over an illness that will keep me in bed for I know not how long?” This really sounds like asking for the impossible.

The more you hear people telling you that the mind and the body are interconnected and that believing that you are 100% healthy can cure your disease, the more upset you get over their impracticality.

You would feel you a have a right to be in a “not-feeling-positive” mood and you would wake up day after day feeling tired of being sick. It was on one of these days that paralyzed engineer Washington Roebling decided to go on with his dream of building a bridge.

Washington Roebling

Washington Roebling’s Miracle

It all started when engineer John Roebling, Washington’s father, had the idea of building the Brooklyn Bridge. Although experts of bridge building around the world told him that this was impossible to carry out, he was able to convince his son Washington, at the time an aspiring civil engineer, to join him in this project.

After his father’s death, Washington became chief engineer. A few years later a tragic accident on the site took resulted in the brain-damage of Washington. He suffered from decompression sickness which made him unable either to walk or talk.

People who had always told the two engineers that it is foolish to chase wild visions believed that this was the end of the project. But Washington could not agree with them.

All he could do was to move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. Washington used to touch his wife’s finger and tap her arm with that finger until they developed a code of communication with each other. (see also Do not tell me it can't be done)

Washington’s wife had to learn bridge-construction in order to be able to
decode and understand her husband’s instructions and dictate them to the workers. For 13 years, Washington tapped out instructions on her arm until the bridge was finished in 1883.

It is fascinating to know that Washington later recovered and outlived by his wife by 20 years.

How to challenge your sickness

Of course Roebling is a special case. We can’t expect all paralyzed people to be able to build bridges. But what is believable is that ill people can still lead productive lives. Here is what you can do if you have to cope with an illness.

1)Impossible is nothing: Roebling has shown us that you can achieve anything you dream of even if you lack the needed resources. Many people do the mistake of assessing their resources then choosing a dream that matches their resources forgetting that a big dream can motivate them to find the missing resources
2)Be flexible and beat your illness: Thanks to technology, you can bring the workplace into your bedroom or it can take you there. In other words, don't let anything stop you. There is always a way to make your dreams true.
3)Don't listen to people: Most people will put you down because they can't really see the big dream in your head. Just like people did with Roebling they will do the same wit you. Ignore the people who put you down and keep moving forward and you will get what you want
4)Do it your own way: Ignore the advice that people give you if you don’t think it is practical. Don’t expect yourself to tell the people who advise you to be in peace with your life, “I’ll do that the first thing in the morning”. (see also How to help someone feel better)
5)Don’t be scared of your anger: Don’t expect the anger, sadness and depression that result from your sickness to disappear overnight. They will gradually be transformed into acceptance. But on some days the anger may come back to you. Don’t try to push it away. Only if you allow it to be present will it show itself out of your life.
6)It could have been much worse: You can’t be expected to forget that you are sick. But what you can remind yourself of is for example, your having a caring partner, a loving family and friends or a comfortable house. Imagine how awful it would have been without them.

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