John GrishamÆs ôBleachersö was a story I connected with at a visceral level. Like Neely Crenshaw, I too have a physical infirmity; I am wheelchair-bound. I share NeelyÆs love of sports, as well(especially football. Unlike Neely, however, I have never played. This book touched the depth of my personal feelings and aspirations, and because there were so many similarities with my own situation, it brought me to a new level of understanding about my disability.
Since I have always wanted to play football, I related to NeelyÆs shattering disappointment when his knee injury brought him from NHL-hopeful football star to has-been. In my imagination, I could first transport myself into his thrill on the field, feel the pigskin in my hands, and experience the rush of adrenaline as I executed plays. I basked in the glory and then felt the pain of crushing disappointment when the glory was gone. In the reminiscences with teammates as the coach lay dying, there was the heaviness of regret and loss, and the pall of unforgiveness. Neely felt his life and his future had been destroyed by that knee injury, and the coach was responsible for it.
NeelyÆs ability to play football seemed as important to me, reading the story, as it was to him. I was in his skin, so to speak, in his thoughts, and my feelings vibrated with his. I understood how difficult the struggle was to forgive the life-altering event: to be able to play football and feel that rush, and then never again. Neely clearly felt that his real life ended with that injury and that the rest of his life was just an afterthought.
The curious thing was that as I read and empathized with NeelyÆs struggle to forgive, I found myself thinking that(as devastating as the injury had been(he had essentially forfeited every other avenue in his life because he had virtually chained himself to that one. It struck me that insisting on football as the only satisfaction or succes...