A Hero Who Dared To Loose

Heroes

The resilient factors that make someone a hero is my opinion is when a person is faced with immense difficulty and arises beyond it. The process includes them becoming more than than society thought they could be. Heroes always have eternal battles because the higher they are, the more fatal the fall. Both football and Faith have seen some amazing heroes. I want to mention one hero in this post… my little brother, Kevin O’Brien

A hero

Cerebral Palsy

Kevin was born with Cerebral Palsy and spent months in the hospital as a toddler having different surgeries done that would enable him to have more flexibility and walk without a walker. With the support of his family and friends he had to learn to walk again at the age of four. From a very young age I remember him being fascinated with football. He would come to the pitch to watch Quin and my games, an avid fan of the game. Cerebral palsy makes foot eye coordination very difficult. Ne never was able to play on a team as a child growing up. Throughout the next 10 years he had numerous other surgeries that completely demobilized him for extended periods of time.

Coaching A Team

The year that I finished high school and moved to East Africa my older brother Quin decided that he was going to coach a football team that summer and Kevin decided that he was going to be on it. The team embraced my brother fully… they embraced everyone on the team. They recognized the vital contribution that each person made to the team. The respect, love and trust that was formed in that team was more powerful than the physical strength and skill of the other teams. That year they made it to the quarter-finals (which my brother played in). They made it to the semi-finals (which my brother played in) and they made it to the finals… During

Kevin

which my brother Quin could have easily played the best 11 players only, but Kevin kept saying, “Quin, let me play, i can play!!”. At one point Kevin’s fully body cramped and a group of parents had to come up carry him off the field. There Kevin was on the side of the field with muscle cramps incomparable to the types that the majority of people face saying, “i can do it, put me in” and Quin looked at Kevin and didn’t did not see anything less than whole person and put him back in.

They won! They won the league! something my time team never was able to do. This is an amazing story partially because the team was full of amazing people with the ability to recognize the nobility and honor in every player, and partially because my brother was so courageous that dared join a football team knowing full well that he was not on equal ground with any other player out there… he dared to fail and ended up winning.

What Inspires Me

When people are naturally successful at things, I am amazed by their beauty, skills and grace. But it is when people are not naturally a champion and learn to champion themselves that I am inspired to become a better human being.

Here is one of the Hidden Words by Baha’u'llah:

O SON OF BEING!
Thou art My lamp and My light is in thee. Get thou from it thy radiance and seek none other than Me. For I have created thee rich and have bountifully shed My favor upon thee.

(Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)