This is a blog from February 2010 which I never posted.
February has been an active month. Time really does fly, it seems like Thanksgiving was a week or so ago and now here it is almost my birthday.
But anyway, to get on with the blog.
Darryl Strawser is a dear friend of mine. We have taught together at the Miami Ad School for nearly 11 years now. Darryl has ALS, Lou Gehrigs Disease. He's quite the exception to the rule, in more ways than one---but one is that most people don't live very long after being diagnosed with ALS. You may remember the book Tuesdays with Morrie--- Well I think Morrie lasted about three years after his diagnosis, so it's fairly extraordinary that Darryl has had it for nearly 15 years now.
But things have started to deteriorate for Darryl lately, however, I would never count him out. He's so resilient that he just keeps coming back at life over and over again. He's begun to fall down sometimes and I have been with him a few times when this has happened. Slow as it may be, he gets right back up again. Getting ready to come to work is an Olympic event for him. He has little to no use of his hands but still manages to brush his teeth, shower, shave, get his clothes on and come to school everyday--and on time. This in itself is an incredible feat.
Darryl really has a unique way of teaching---he is very funny and sarcastic at the same time. He can let students know they screwed up without killing their self esteem. His facial expressions (as seen above) say everything, before he says anything. There are people in our lives that show up to inspire us, remind us how important the little things are, and Darryl shows us that every challenge can be met with a smile and the opportunity to transform it into a lesson---for ourselves and for others.
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