EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE

This is Hump Day, so let me again depart from saving Planet Earth and Humanity.  If for whatever reason you feel sorry for yourself, read about these individuals who have soared against extraordinary circumstances.

First, of course there was Helen Keller, who was born normal, but at the age of one and a half became deaf and blind from an illness.  How she went on to earn a degree from Radcliffe, cum laude, then a spokesperson for the handicapped until almost reaching the age of 88, is a miracle, indeed.  You can watch the latest edition of The Miracle Worker, the whole 2000 TV remake, by clicking on that link.  The 1962 original with Ann Bancroft and Patty Duke gained a 100% rating by Rotten Tomatoes.

About more recent extraordinary individuals, mostly unknowns, merely representative of many more, I got to start with my namesake, Patrick, who from birth was diagnosed to suffer from bilateral anophthalmia with pterygium syndrome and congenital bilateral hip dysplasia.  People like Patrick Henry Hughes, who is merely blind from birth, with hip joints that largely don't function, but played in the University of Louisville marching band, can hopefully turn some of your lives around.  He graduated magna cum laude and played in the Grand Ole Opry.  More than anything else, it's  his attitude that impressed me.  His sense of humor makes me cry.

From South Korea, another blind pianist, 5-year old Yoo Ye Eun (above). That clip was from 2007.  She is now eleven and performs around the world.

Many of you were amazed by the first China Got Talent winner, Liu Wei (23):

He lost both arms at the age of 10 from an accident, and plays with his toes.  Wei is roughly quoted to have said:  My life only have two road, or to die, or wonderfully alive.  You get the point.  Runner-up was six-year old Zhang Fengxi, a stand-up comic.  Make your day, watch her performance.

Another 6-year old is Britain's Got Talent Connie Talbot.  She only came in third in Year One but here is her effort five years later, a tribute to Whitney Houston.  Eerily reminiscent, and she was only eleven.

Well, one more.  Magnus Carlsen from Norway, all of 22, is the top chess player in the world.  He picked up the game at the age of eight, and made grandmaster at the age of 13.  The world record is held by Irina Krush, who was born in Russia, but grew up in the U.S., attaining the grandmaster level at the age of 12.  She is now 30 years old.  But along came Carissa Yip of Massachusetts, who at the age of 9 is the youngest American chess expert, and should this year reach a rating of 2100, a hundred points short of grandmaster.  She has three years to become the youngest grandmaster, ever.

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