SHOULD I START A PODCAST EXPLORING ISSUES OF DISABILITY?

 

Earlier in my life, numerous people tried to lure me to central Canada and away from my little French town in the hinterland of western Canada. Perhaps the most tempting offer that I remember (it was a very long time ago) was being offered a job to host a national TV series the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was planning in 1990 (I told you it was a long time ago). The series was going to deal with issues surrounding disabilities and showcase the lives of Canadians with physical and mental challenges.

 

The CBC flew me to Ottawa to meet with a senior producer at an elegant restaurant who presented me with the idea. There was only one catch: I would have to uproot my family and move to Toronto or Ottawa (I can't remember which city) and leave our small town life. It was an extraordinary opportunity—to be sure—one of the best I was ever offered during my short career. I must admit that I was tempted. 

But the timing was wrong: My children were young and settled. Uprooting them would have been too disruptive to their lives. Besides, we had extended family near who needed us. I looked out the restaurant window while the executive producer for the series sat across the table waiting for my response to her offer to host the show. That still small voice inside me said, "Let it pass." Reluctantly I turned down the opportunity.

 

Dreams of grandeur were not mine to have. God planned something else for me: Quiet contemplation in the midst of physical struggle rather than a television show. To the world, God's plan might have seemed laughable compared to the lights and glamour of television. 
 Just over a year later my disability forced me to retire and live on a modest disability pension. My disease kept ravaging my body and forcing my type A personality into stillness and contemplation. Days, months and years, then decades, were spent convalescing while looking out my window as seasons passed. Successive generations of blue jays flew to the bird feeder in the backyard. My hair turned white. Grandchildren were born. That still small voice whispered, “Be open to love for in love you will find God.” I discovered it is true. The meaning of my life did not come in a thunder-clap of glory rather in a breeze and ordinary rhythms of life. Sometimes we see most clearly through eyes blurred with tears. 

Looking back now, as a 72 year old man, I think God wanted to use my disability and paralysis with aggressive MS to teach me something critically important that can only be learned in quietude: The art of true love (both human and divine). God wanted me to stay put and wait on Him.

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Now, 35 years after the turning down my chance to host a national television program about disabilities where I could have taken my advocacy to Canadians across the nation, new technologies and new ways of communicating have emerged, I’ve decided to try and take a next step and try podcasting to complement the blog. What do you think?

Mark