Tuesday, May 12, 2015

AMY VAN DYKEN-ROUEN (Mary + Sue)


Amy Van Dyken-Rouen

(plus false story)

 
---Many of us are aware of the Amy Van Dyke-Rouen situation. She is the Olympic Swimmer with many awards who had an accident. She can no longer walk, etc., BUT, her attitude toward life is incredible. Her enthusiasm is contagious. She vows that she will someday walk, but it is the ‘overview’ she has about the whole thing that is so impressive.

---I was thinking about why her situation and ours seems so different. I’m sure that her zest for living is NOT anything new to her. I would bet that she was very positive to most things in her life. I wondered why there were folks like Amy and folks like those in underserved population.

---I’d like to make up a story about Mary + Sue. Mary got all the breaks. She was encouraged to speak her mind and asked her opinion quite frequently, even in her younger years. Her dad would make up scenarios that she would have to think to get out of. She was supported very much.

---Sue was smart like Mary, but did NOT have the support from others that Mary had. Her dad saw life as a 'dog eat dog world' AND 'get the other guy before he gets you.' She was championed for little and often told that a child is seen but NOT heard. She will never amount to anything, so why bother? He was not thrilled with very much and had a way of cutting those down to size that did. He wasn't too thrilled with the whole Sue situation, either.

---Mary saw that life had a way of offering up challenges. Sue saw things that happen as another obstacle to achieving the obscurity the she sought. Life Sucks…WHAT NOW? Mary was more the Amy type, while Sue had the mindset of the underserved population.

---With such a negative self-image, her hospital stays were difficult. Any of her interactions were difficult. Everything that she did had an earmark of difficulty.

---We would have ALL benefited from having Sue’s approach to life…being improved. Her positive approach is a much, more needed response to life...than her Life Sucks approach which was eating away at her insides.


 
 A Steady Diet of Well-Placeds Positive Encouragement Works Wonders.