Prototypes

Stripped of ability, strength, I find myself suddenly somewhat renewed and left to embark upon the long road not to the point from which I fell but to something resembling the point towards which I was striving before life got in the way, albeit from a different angle. While the malady that caused my deviation from the path is rare, fortunately the general story line common; our society is rife with tales of such role models, prototypes for my quest to heal stronger. I would like to identify three of them.

Lance Armstrong
This dude is ridiculous. I would try to express this idea more eloquently, but that would also be ridiculous. In 1996, suffering testicular cancer which spread to his brain, he underwent surgery on his necrotic brain tumors and to remove his diseased testicle. Two years later, he began his comeback, and in 1999 he won the Tour de France for the first of seven consecutive titles. Again, ridiculous. At the same time, I can understand how great an advantage he must have had over similarly talented athletes who had not experienced anything hardship of that nature. There is no way that after suffering through chemotherapy, brain surgery and an orchiectomy, Lance Armstrong was not subject to any of the same obstacles that normally hold people back. It is inconceivable to me that he could fail to train adequately on account of playing too many video games, or any other sloth. I do not wear his bracelet or anything like that, but I get it, this is the guy. It reminds me of John Coltrane. There is no way that John Coltrane was even a quarter as naturally gifted as Sonny Rollins. But that is a huge part of his greater impression on the culture as personality, a character in history. People can imagine achieving things via an insatiable work ethic. Little is gained from praying to wake up with supreme natural talent. Lance Armstrong allows people to say "if that dude with one ball holes in his skull can win the tour de France..." It's charming.

Gandalf the Grey
While Lance Armstrong might have overcome cancer, Gandalf fought a Balrog. Lots of dudes in Middle Earth will not even allow you to say that out loud. Gandalf fell off a bridge deep under the mines of Moria, ensnared by the tail of the giant demon thing, and had to fight it ... or something. And yet he came back astonishingly stronger. They even had do change him to a different color. I'm going to ignore the really creepy racial undertones of Tolkien here ... back to the point. In Tolkien's weird world, being white is to wizardry what being black is to karate. And Gandalf doesn't merely become “The White”, he becomes “The Whitest”, casting off Sauruman with aplomb. Again, the color thing is considerably weird. But the example stands as a great real world validation that one can recover from a great fall and achieve greatness.

Pat Martino
This guy might not be Gandalf, or Lance Armstrong, but he is a musician who recovered the ability to play after experiencing a disease of the brain. So what he lacks in RPM and wizardry, he makes back, as concerns this list, in relevance. He also happens to be real, which I have decided not to hold against him. After suffering a nearly fatal brain aneurysm in 1980, at age 36, he underwent surgery, emerging with no memory of the guitar. After a long recovery, Martino recorded again in 1987 and has enjoyed considerable success as a touring musician.