The essay, "On Being a Cripple" written by Nancy Mairs discussed the topic on being what others would call handicapped or disabled, but she chooses to describe herself plainly as a cripple. The narrator uses the word cripple because she says it has a clean and straightforward meaning, having lost the full use of her limbs. When she is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, it changes the way she lives her life physically but never seems to give up on life itself. She struggles of course and as time passes, the disease progresses having more chances of complications. She learns to accept the truth rather than dwell on having the disease and chooses to live her life like any normal human being would with some restrictions on activities.
Nancy has Multiple Sclerosis and what it is, is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous ssytem in which the myelin that sheathes the nerves is somehow eaten away and scar tissue forms in its place, interrupting the nerves signals. During the course, a person can loose a number of functions such as vision, hearing, speech, ability to walk, control of bladder or bowels, sense of humor and the list goes on. Those functions I just mentioned are just a few and I can imagine how difficult life would already be without them. Just knowing some of the complications the disease carries along with it makes me imagine how depressed I would be if I was in her position. COnsidering there is no cure, I'd lose hope in life and think I'd mine as well die. But Nancy in the other hand has an entirely different perspective on everything with having such a disease. She continues to be a grad student and also is a professor at colleges. She continues doing poetries and continues the roles as a mother and husband. She struggles being cripple physically and mentally and yet she inspires me because she still has the motivation and strength to continue living her life with the acceptance of the fact and truth about herself.
Nancy's physical appearance continues to progress and change but she mentions in the essay, "At my age, I don't spend much time thinking about my appearance. The burning egocentricity of adolescence which assures on that all the world is looking all the time, has passed, thnk God, and I'm generally too caught up in what I'm doing, to step back as I used to, and watch myself as though upon a stage". It goes to show how she has far more other important things to worry about than to be saddened by how she looks physically. Quoted by Nancy, "I've been limpin along for ten years now, and so far George and the children are still at my left elbow holding tight. By saying that, she's thankful that her husband and children are still on her side treating her as if she didn't have the disease. Like many others who suffer from cancer and other diseases, she could live every day saying and asking herself things like, "I hate my life" or "Why me?", but she's an inspiration because she doesn't. Instead, she continues to live each day as it comes positively.
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