Recyled Power- Courage

Would you have this kind of courage to stand up to your convictions?

First seen here on September 27, 2007

About a week ago, while at a ?superstore?? I saw a group of young boys. They were young teenagers, perhaps 13 maybe 14. I smiled as I watched them as they were laughing, having fun and enjoying themselves. As I looked over at them a flicker of recognition came to me. One of the boys was familiar.

I don?t know this boy. I don?t know the whole story. I saw and I remember the media version. The real and complete story will probably never be told.

But what I saw on that day looked like a happy and joyful ending or perhaps even a happy and joyful beginning, after all his whole life is ahead of him and he looked ready to live it to the fullest. My heart filled with happy thoughts as I watched him. He looked to me to be very happy, very healthy, very alive and very full of joy.

The reason why I recognized this boy was because a few years back he and his parents were at the center of attention in all of the local news media. I saw his face on the TV. I saw his face in the newspaper. He was the lead story on the news. It was not a happy story but it was a story of courage and conviction.

The media reported that this boy had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer of the soft tissues. I don?t recall, nor do I care to recall the exact name of it. That is not part of the story. No, that is not the story that I will tell!

The reason why he was on the news was because his parents were refusing the conventional yet invasive treatments like radiation and chemotherapy. The state disagreed with their ideas and their chosen course of treatment and the state was trying to force them to comply. There were battles. There were attorneys. That was the story, over and over again. The parents would win a round, the state would again try to force their hand.

I can remember at the time thinking about how I admired those parents for sticking to their convictions and yet a part of me felt a fear of ?what if they are wrong and the doctors are right? What if they don?t have the treatment and the boy dies? How could they live with themselves?? Yet I could see how courageous they were being in the face of such horrific pressures. As I watched I could see and I could feel their unshakable convictions and their deep belief that their child was fine, healthy, strong and able to overcome whatever challenges he faced.

I had to admire them. At the time, I was not sure that I would have been as strong and courageous as they were in the face of such adversity.

Their story was part of the news for perhaps a year or longer. At one point the family even moved away to a neighboring state. As I recall none of the doctors seen on the media would agree with the parents, all of the doctors sided with the state in saying that the boy had this disease and needed this specific treatment. If the parents had any doctors on their side, the media was not telling the public so that I don?t know.

At the end though, the parents ended up winning their case. The boy did not receive the conventional treatments the state was trying to enforce. Had the state been correct and had he truly been as sick as they said, with the only way for him to get well being the invasive treatments, he would have died by now. In this case, the state and the so-called ?experts? were wrong.

His parents with the Love in their Heart and the Intuitions of their Souls were right. They knew.

A year or so later, I saw an update on the news. This time it was reported that he was healthy, strong and cancer-free. It?s funny how the media can change sides on a subject.

So you see why it made me happy to see this teenager, this tall, handsome, healthy, strapping boy. It has been 5 years or more. It was a joy to see him laughing and playing and even causing mischief with his friends at the local Walmart, more Power to him I say!

And that is the wonderful continuation of the story. Much better than the story from before.