At twenty-two Christopher Nolan was already hailed as a literary genius. With Britain’s coveted Whitbread Prize for his autobiography, “Under the Eye of the Clock,’ his work has been compared to that of James Joyce and W. B. Yeats. Yet it takes Christopher Nolan a quarter of an hour to write one word. It’s a super-human task. Born with severe cerebral palsy, he spends much of his life strapped in a wheelchair, his face and limbs subject to uncontrollable spasms. He can’t speak, but by eleven years old he’d learned to type. Why?
As a child, he cried bitterly that he was not like other children, until one day his mother, the heroine of his life, said to him, “Listen here, you can see, you can hear, you can understand and you’re loved by me and your dad just as you are.” That day he began to fan the only spark he saw, “I’m alive and more importantly, I’m loved just the way I am!” Gradually he looked at his limbs and decided that he liked himself! What a decision. He began to shift his attention away from his limitations and focus on what was possible – what he could do with his life.
Listen to a few of his sentences;
“My mind is like a spin-dryer at full speed; millions of beautiful words cascade down into my lap. Images gunfire across my consciousness and while trying to discipline them, I jump in awe at the soul-filled beauty of the mind’s expanse.” These sentences would have taken Christopher 11 hours to type.
Christopher says, “”I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift.”
Source: Under The Eye of the Clock, Christopher Nolan
[weakness, impairment, opportunity, abilities, gifts]