Happy New Year to everyone – I feel a surge of optimism! The first decade of this millenium has not been an easy one, not for me and not for many people I know. In fact it’s been downright horrible! Right now, ever since I realized it was a new decade, I feel almost on fire with positive energy.
For New Year’s Eve I drove for a couple of hours up island – in the dark and rain – to a great pub in Saltair. Marilyn and Martin and I danced the night away to ‘Luv Train’ – a fabulous band of my good friends Virginia, her husband Larry and Rick Ryce from One Human Family choir. I couldn’t have wished for a lovelier start to the new year – a warm and fun evening.
And tonight… Well, tonight I find myself at a highschool gym with Sunny (who wrote the poem on this site last month) a basketball player who ten years ago, in his 20s, was seriously disabled. Tonight, for the first time this century, he played basketball again! It was beautiful.
The energy in the gym as the teams thundered up and down, bouncing the ball was exciting. And the skill! There are a dozen players, men and women, led by a handsome, 6′3″ ex-regular basketball player called Tony G whose skills from a chair are nothing short of amazing. When everyone is in a chair, suddenly the word ‘disabled’ evaporates and the feeling of freedom in that gym was palpable.
When we arrived – having got lost (which has become my hallmark) – some of the team were here already, warming up with 2 little blond kids who were the son and daughter of one of the players and dab hands with wheelchairs and a basketball themselves!
Tony spent some time explaining to me that somehow, in order for the teams to thrive, they need to get the word out to the community that they welcome new players, both abled and disabled. Unfortunately most of the key players are already struggling with disability – please forward the link for this blog to your friends, especially if you live on Vancouver Island. The more that we know such sports exist, the more we can support them. And if you know of someone who has become disabled, take them out to join in a game. If you email me I will be happy to put you in touch with Tony.
The bottom line tonight? These photographs don’t show the incredible energy in the gym. If you have good wheelchair basketball photos I would love to see them.
And after years of telling me ‘no, I will never be able to play basketball again’ I saw Sunny laughing and racing up and down the gym shooting baskets.
He’s back…
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Way to go Sunny!