Tough Choices

There was a story reported on television about a young boy facing the worst type of adversity you can imagine. Charlie was 10 years old and told he had only six months to a year to live. He was dying from a rare type of thyroid cancer.

Here was a child who was being forced to choose how he wanted to spend the rest of his limited time on Earth. He could have spent his time feeling sorry for himself, traveling to see new sights, or simply playing with his friends. Instead, he asked his mother if he could spend his allowance money, which he had saved, to buy gifts and give them out to the other children on the cancer ward.

A reporter asked little Charlie why he had made this choice, and he replied that it made him feel really good and forget about being sick himself.

Charlie actually lived another four years—time enough to buy many gifts for many children. Many of his doctors felt that his choice to give back to others and his determination to help as many children as he could had a lot to do with his longevity.

In the end, Charlie gave even more than he had imagined. Through his illness, doctors were able to discover the gene mutation that caused his rare form of cancer. This discovery raised hope that it might be possible someday to test children from at-risk families and to remove their thyroid glands before they get cancer.

Charlie lived as long as he did because of the skill of his doctors and because of his amazing attitude. A child, facing the worst adversity possible, made choices that not only kept his body and spirit going, but helped countless others as a result. Think about how your life would change if you didn't fear adversity and if—like Charlie—you actually embraced it as an opportunity for growth and wisdom.

Charlie's strength and determination showed that no matter how bad things get, something good can come from adversity. In fact, sometimes the worse things become, the greater the discoveries you can make about yourself.

To be really alive, to truly feel life's offerings, is to know the highs and lows, the exhilaration of the mountaintop and the descent to the valley, and to accept and enjoy not one but both. Life's highs are most invigorating; there is also fertileness to be found in the lowest valley.

—David Chow and Richard Spangler,
Kung Fu: History, Philosophy and Technique