On Being a Cripple

In the story “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs she tells us about her struggle on being crippled. At first she couldn’t accept it, but as time progressed she learned to deal and accept it. The idea that got to me is when she said “When I was twenty-eight I started to trip and drop things. What at first seemed my natural clumsiness soon became too pronounced to shrug off.” I felt that I could relate to this because I too like the author have natural clumsiness. One day I was messing around with my friends and I can’t exactly remember what happened, but all I remember is that my knee popped out of place and I fell to the ground and I couldn’t get up. I also felt a lot of pain. After being on crutches for two weeks I recovered, but to this day I still feel pain in my knee and I know that it will never feel the same again.

“On Being a Cripple” got to me because I started to think about the things she was saying. For example, when she said “I will never run again, except in dreams, and one day I may have to write that I will never walk again.” What she said scared me because of the fact that I have a bad knee, it got me thinking what if as the years progress I won’t be able to walk normally or without the help of a cane. In the event that this ever happens I will learn to accept it because it is no one’s fault but my own. I just have to think of the fact that everything happens for a reason.

Although Nancy Mairs was sick it didn’t stop her from doing what she did. She never complained or said “I hate my life.” At the end of the essay it describes how she is talking to a friend who also has MS and she asked Nancy “Do you ever say to yourself, `Why me, Lord?` and her response was “No, Michael, I don’t,” I told him “because whenever I try, the only response I can think of is `Why not?” Nancy is a brave person and I have to admire her for never regretting what has happened to her. She just lived with it and learned to accept it, and I think that is the right attitude to have.