On days when my tremor is a little more visible…or my right hand decides it doesn’t want to type…or something else reminds me things will likely progress from “inconvenience” to “uh-oh” in the coming years, I occasionally engage in bouts of self-pity.
A seemingly minor event can throw me for a loop. This week I walked past the exit row while boarding an airplane. During my road warrior days, the exit row my row — 21D on United was my seat.
Not anymore. I can no longer truthfully claim the ability to assist in the unlikely event in an emergency.
Trust me on this: Captain Sully would not want to depend on the current version of Phil Bernstein to open the door after a water landing.
Walking past that exit row caused an extended snit.
So it was a bit of a shame-inducer when I stumbled upon a 2024 obituary for Paul Alexander of Dallas.
Mr. Alexander, it’s fair to say, dealt with a bit more adversity than I have. After contracting a severe case of polio as a small child, he lived in an iron lung for 72 years.
He was one of the last few people in the United States living inside an iron lung, which works by rhythmically changing air pressure in the chamber to force air in and out of the lungs. And in the final weeks of his life, he drew a following on TikTok by sharing what it had been like to live so long with the help of an antiquated machine.
For 72 years, he couldn’t move anything but his head. Although he eventually learned to breathe outside the iron lung for a few hours at a time, he spend the vast majority of his life confined to that metal tube.
While confined to that tube, he graduated from high school, finishing second in his class. “The only reason I didn’t finish first,” he told the Dallas Morning News, “is because I couldn’t do the biology lab.”
He had to fight for two years to convince Southern Methodist University to admit him as a student.
Confined to that tube, at a time when college campuses made little effort to accommodate folks with disabilities, he earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from the University of Texas.
He practiced as a lawyer, handling family law and bankruptcy.
Late in his life, he became “Polio Paul” on TikTok, earning more than 300,000 followers. If TikTok is still operating when you read this, you can watch one of his videos here.
In summary, he encountered perhaps the worst circumstances a person could encounter, and lived a life of meaning and purpose.
On days when I begin to show signs of self-pity — and there are likely to be many — I will tell myself the story of Paul Alexander.
If he could deal with THAT, I can deal with this.
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Bonus for Those Who Read to the Bottom
If the Beatles had performed “Stairway to Heaven.”
.
Stairway. Bagpipes.
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”A Whole Lotta Love” on guitar and beatbox.
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