Victories over Polio – Before the “Iron Lung” and the “Sauk Vaccine”

My friend was discussing the book, “Three Days on the Brink” with an acquaintance over a cup of coffee at Panera. The book was about the secret meeting of Churchill, FDR, and Stalin in Tehran, Iran planning “D-Day” – The invasion of Europe during WWII. Some of the book was dedicated to the battle that FDR waged against Polio (a devasting, crippling disease then, but foreign to many today, because of its eradication by the Sauk Vaccine in the mid 50’s.)

FDR was born to wealthy, aristocratic parents in New York. He was raised among the highest circles of Society. Educated in the finest schools. Privy to unlimited opportunities for the rest of his life. FDR chose politics to be his vocation. However, he became Governor of New York because of his relentless personal appearances throughout the state, not because of his privilege. The lesson of perseverance would serve him well battling Polio.

Out of the blue, at age 39, in the prime of his life, the devastating effects of Polio struck FDR down. All of his family status, money, and accomplishments could not help FDR stand & walk. Like every other Polio victim, he was confined to his bed, with his legs shackled in steel constraints, never to stand & walk again. Nor enjoy any of the fruits of those ordinary functions, common to everyone. The dream of the Presidency burst like a bubble. Except.

Except, FDR refused to accept his fate laying down. He attempted to walk in a swimming pool, with water supplying the buoyancy his legs needed.. He immersed himself in therapeutic “Hot Springs” water, laced with medicine. He would lift his body by his arms, between 2 parallel wooden rails, and swing one leg forward and then, the next. None of those efforts resulted in any change in his condition. But it toughened his resolve to never give up, regardless of insurmountable challenges. (A valuable lesson learned for the rest of his life.)

FDR resumed his political career by sheer will. He continued to make relentless, personal appearances throughout the State of New York, and was re-elected Governor. When President Hoover chose a status-quo path to solve the problems of the Great Depression, FDR challenged him with a bold, “New Deal”, and won. And won re-election 3-more times. It was his relentless will and confident optimism for a better life that uplifted citizens to vote for him.

The Above YouTube Music Video expresses the Triumph of “Will” Against All Odds

As my friend and acquaintance were discussing FDR’s battle with Polio, the stranger at the next table stood up and walked over. Obviously, he couldn’t help but overhear my friend’s conversation, when he said,

“I also had Polio. But I was stricken at the age of 4, a year before the “Iron Lung” was invented and a decade before the “Sauk Vaccine”. My parents were poor. So, I was sent away to a Sanitarium while I was contagious.

There, I was condemned to a bed, legs shackled in irons, denied physical therapy, because there was no hope for a cure of childhood Polio. A child stricken with Polio was doomed to a life of pain and despair. After the contagious period was over, I was sent back home. Except, I refused to believe that my normal life was over.

I intuitively began a regimen of physical therapy on my own, against all odds, I noticed small improvements in my legs. I was encouraged by continuous progress, until one day, I could stand. Then, I struggled to put one leg in front of the other. In a few years, I could walk and attended school with my friends. When I graduated from college, I became a Social Worker.

I wanted to help as many people as I could to overcome their life-challenges, through perseverance and Faith in God. My Supervisors assigned me the most difficult cases, involving the severest difficulties.. Some successfully overcame their problems. Others did not. Those that succeeded were confident in their will to succeed and their faith in God. Those were the same qualities that allowed me to overcome my incurable, childhood Polio.”

With that being said, the stranger turned and walked away without a limp or cane.

My friend was in awe of this man’s story. Like FDR, he was testimony to the power of the human spirit, perseverance, and Faith. The stranger transferred his life-changing convictions on a one-on-one basis to others – to lift them out of their hopelessness. FDR’s relentless optimism provided hope to a nation during the Great Depression and guidance during WWII. Both men’s lives proved that challenges are overcome by perseverance of will and confidence in a Power Higher than themselves. And that neither privilege nor poverty are a help or a hindrance.

God values both those men’s effort to benefit others, just the same. The magnitude of outcome is irrelevant. You don’t need to be Mother Theresa to be valued by God. “You are a “Success” if even one life breathes easier because you lived.” – Emerson

Upon reflection, my friend vowed to incorporate those values to become a better man.

The Experiences of the Sanctuary of Our Soul

The “Body of Christ” described by St. Paul can also be compared to a mosaic comprised of many small, broken shards of multicolored glass. Each Shard refracts & reflects the “Light of Christ”, differently. Each shard reflects a tiny sliver of the “Spectrum of the Light of Christ”.

Individually, they are insignificant. Collectively, they display the magnificent majesty of Jesus Christ. Each shard of different shape & function is valued the same by God. That’s the Cosmic Beauty & Mystery of the “Body of Christ”.

St. Paul realized that he did not deserve to be chosen as the “Disciple to the Gentiles”. In fact, he was on his way to Damascus to arrest more Christians to be killed, when he had his conversion experience. That experience convinced Paul that humanity does not, nor cannot, do anything to earn God’s Love. Only The Redemptive Cross is sufficient for humanity’s reconciliation with God.

We don’t earn God’s Love by Keeping commandments, Doing good deeds, or Knowing Scripture. God already loves us “As Is”. Our relationship with God is Not Based on some Pavlovian “Quid-Pro-Quo” – “Ladder-Based” Theology where we climb our way up to God. We don’t earn God’s Love. God loves us “As Is”.

In the process of loving God and others, we will keep commandments, do good deeds, and adhere to the Word of God.

As St. Paul wrote, “And the greatest of these is Love”. As Christ said, “By this, shall all men know that you are my disciple, if you love one another, as I have loved you.

Loving is a tougher standard than “Keeping”, “Doing”, and “Knowing”.

St. Paul also realized that Christ made No distinction between Himself and believers in Him. (“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME.”) Saul never met Christ. Saul never persecuted Christ. Saul persecuted believers in Christ. The “Body of Christ” is comprised of many different members who all believe that Christ is their “Savior” and that Christ is the “Head” of the Body.

The life-blood of the “Body of Christ” is he gift of grace that flows from Christ to and through each member to every other member and back to God, by the mutual circulation of Love. That’s the Pascal Mystery of God’s reconciled relationship with humanity.

That reconciled relationship is experienced at a level beyond “Keeping”, “Doing” and “Knowing”. It is experienced by “Being” … in Love … with God. It’s the awesome awareness of the presence of God within us.

The above YouTube music video expresses God’s unconditional Love for us. Christ asks that we love one another, likewise.

NB (Note Bene): The concept of “experiencing the presence of God within us” is traced to the ancient Greek Philosophers and reinforced by the brilliant minds of Western Philosophers and Theologians throughout the ages. Everything we need to know has been “hard-wired” into our soul, by our Creator. We spend our life recognizing (Latin: Re-Cognito – “To Know Again”) what’s already intrinsically known, that we were made by God,  for God.

Christ demonstrated God’s Love for us by entering our humanity, and by His Sacrifice on Good Friday, reconciled the broken relationship with God. (Like broken branches re-grafted to the Living Vine.) We need to believe that by “Loving God, and others,  as Christ has loved us”.

That Belief in Love requires:

• The Humility of the creature to the Creator.
• The Gratitude of the sinner to the Savior.
• The Repentance “To create in me a new clean heart”.
• The Trust that God is sovereign overall things.

Then, the New Covenant of God’s reconciled relationship with humanity is born again in the believing members of the “Body of Christ”, as children of God and heirs to Heaven.

The above YouTube Music Video Expresses the Power of Faith in The Majestic Creator, Loving Redeemer, and Holy Spirit.

The spiritual experience of the love relationship with God exists on a Mystical Level. It defies the finite limitations of language, logic, or analysis. It’s an indescribable glimpse of the power & wisdom of the Majestic Creator, the mercy & forgiveness of the Loving Redeemer, and the peace & joy of the Holy Spirit.

As such, there is an intrinsic, systemic, life-changing focus in the member of the “Body of Christ”. The member WANTS to love God and each other, above all else. Then, the dross of Pride, Lust, Greed, Anger, etc., which fester in the soft underbelly of our humanity, melts away. The temptations of the Powers & Principalities have the allure of cheap perfume. Satan’s attempts to use compromise & rationalization to dilute our relationship with God are recognized as illusions, and not the solutions they promise to be.

This internal, systemic life-changing Mystical Experience of a loving relationship with God serves the same purpose as the Scriptural external weapons of a helmet, breastplate, shield & sword. Perhaps, the communal power of the loving communion with God, by the members of the “Body of Christ”, is more than sufficient strength NOT to turn our face from God. Rather, “Like the deer  pants for the flowing stream”, our soul thirsts for the Loving God” is an overwhelming experience quenched only by loving God and others.

The Above YouTube Music Video Captures the Essence of “Being” God’s Friend.

It’s the Transformational State of “Being” … in Love.

The Touch of the Master’s Hand

My friend told me a story about the value of something changing, depending on how it is treated and the intervention of a “Master”. People’s perception of its value changes accordingly.

It was battered and scarred. And the Auctioneer thought it was scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin. But he held it up with a smile: “What am I bid, good folks he cried, Who will start bidding for me? A dollar, a dollar; then, Two! Only two?  Two dollars, and who will make it three? Three dollars once; three dollars, twice; Gone for three.”

But no. From the room far back, a grey-haired man came forward and picked up the bow. Then, wiping the dust from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody pure and sweet, as a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low, said, “What am I bid for the old violin?” And he held it up with the bow. “A thousand dollars, and who will make it two? Two thousand! And who will make it three? Three thousand once; three thousand twice. And going and gone said he.”

The people cheered, but some of them cried, “We do not quite understand, what changed its worth? Swift came the reply: “The touch of the Master’s Hand.” And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin, is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin.

The Above YouTube Music Videos Lyrics Express the Essence of this Blog Post Message

A mess of pottage, a glass of wine, a game – and he travels on. He’s “going once”, and “going twice”, “he’s going and almost gone.” But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand, the worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought, by the “Touch of the Master’s Hand.”

The Above YouTube Music Video expresses the essence of “The Touch Of the Master’s Hand”

That story & song describes the Cosmic Mystery of the intervention of God’s Grace in a man’s life.

“Beetle” Song Lyrics Similar to Biblical Themes

Recently, my friend was listening to “Beetle” songs on a CD in his car. The CD had 27 songs, some of them memorialized in the current Movie “Yesterday”. My friend realized that the lyrics to some of the “Beetle songs were congruent to the messages of Bible verses. Thee Beetles primarily wrote songs about the relationship between teenage boys & girls.

At some point in their lives, young men experience a loss of confidence and doubt the value of their lives, as lamented in “Yesterday” – “All my troubles seemed so far away. Now they seem to be here to stay. I’m not half the man I used to be. There’s a shadow hanging over me. How I long for yesterday.”

That malaise is exacerbated by the culture’s lack of solutions expressed in “Day Tripper” – “Got a good reason for taking the easy way out. She was a day tripper. One-way ticket, yeah. It took me so long to find out. And I found out. She’s a big teaser. She took me half the way there.”

When the culture doesn’t provide the solutions they promised to be, young men cry out for “Help” – “Help. I need somebody. Help. Not just anybody. When I was younger, I didn’t need anybody’s help in any way. But now those days are gone, and I’m not so self-assured. Help me if you can, I’m feeling down. I do appreciate you being around. Help me get my feet back on the ground. Please, please, help me.”

Then, the young man finds the solution he seeks on the “Long and Winding Road” – “The Long and winding road that leads to your door, will never disappear. I’ve seen that road before. It always leads me here, leads me to your door. Many times, I’ve been alone, and many times I’ve cried. Anyway, you’ve always known the many ways I’ve tried. And still they lead me back to the long and winding road, that leads me to your door.”

The Above YouTube Music Video is One Example of Beetle Song Lyrics Referenced in this Blog Post

The solution he finds is quite simple, “Let It Be” – “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, “Let it be.”. And in my hour of darkness, she is standing in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, “Let t be”. And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer, “Let it be”. And when the night is cloudy, there’s a light that shines on me, speaking words of wisdom, “Let it be”.

To execute that solution, “All You Need is Love” – “There’s nothing that you can do, that can’t be done. Nothing that you can sing that can’t be sung. There’s nothing that you can make, that can’t be made. No one that you can save that can’t be saved. All you need is Love. Love is all you need.”

The books of the Bible were written for the relationship between God & humanity, and each other. Although written thousands of years apart, for different audiences, the common denominator of relationships is basically the same. By substituting God in the lyrics of the above “Beetle” songs their themes resemble the following Biblical Verses, paraphrased & condensed, about the relationship between God & humanity:

“God created man & woman in His Image & likeness. God called His creation Good. Adam & Eve lived in a Paradise of abundance, in concert with the animals. (Genesis) Dissatisfied, the Prodigal Son took his father’s inheritance, and traveled to a far-away city to spend it on wine, women, and song. When the money was gone, he ate & slept with the pigs, longing for his father’s home. (Luke) They wandered through the desert for 40 years before they came to the land of milk & honey. (Genesis) But God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son, so that all who believe in Him, shall not perish, but have life everlasting. (John) Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, the beauty awaiting believers in heaven. (Revelation) That reward only requires acceptance of the Great Command: Love God with your whole heart, mind, and soul. And love one another as I (Christ) have loved you. (John) There is Faith, Hope, and Love. And the greatest of these is Love. (Corinthians)

The “Beetle” songs in the movie, “Yesterday”, & Bible verses tell stories of mutual attraction and affection. Then, one party drifts away thinking it can do better. The realization that the alternative was an illusion is stark and bitter. But, the prodigal party needs help to return to the original relationship. I’s a long and winding journey, broken-hearted, through darkness, to go back home. It requires to let things go, let things be.And in the end, all you need is Love. Love is all you need.

Sometimes it takes a lifetime to understand & accept those lyrics & the verses.

In the end, the resulting relationship of Peace and Joy and Love with God, and each other, is Priceless and Infinite.

The Above YouTube Video Confirms the Blog Post Message Above