Nothing Is Impossible Read Online Free PDF Page B

self-discipline to exercise when I don’t feel like it, which is extremely important because overall health and any hope of recovery can’t be achieved without it.I’ve learned to stick to a conscientious diet; keeping my weight under control makes muscular and cardiovascular conditioning much easier. Since ’97 my skin has stayed intact; as a result I have the freedom to sit in my chair for as many as fourteen to fifteen hours. In the old days I was often limited to five or six. I have been able to avoid many urinary tract infections and keep the bases of my lungs functioning almost normally.
    All of that is extremely hard work, and many times I don’t succeed. Just recently I suffered from severe bloating of my stomach and difficulty breathing. X rays showed that huge pockets of air had formed in my large intestine, which was putting pressure on my diaphragm. The remedy didn’t come from the mind/body connection; I made changes in my diet and underwent a procedure to clear the blockage.
    Perhaps I am still in the early stages of learning to control manifestations in my body with the power of my mind. At this point it seems that I am able to respond to emergencies such as the threatened amputation of a limb. I get the sense that in time I will discover the ability to do more. But now I’m confident that when something comes up, when germs invade and systems fail as they inevitably do, my mind and body, with the assistance of medicine, will keep me healthy and prepared for the future.



As parents we all have different ideas of what success means for our children. I think the most important aspect of success has to do with finding a real passion for something in life. It means a responsibility to live up to one’s potential. That has to be discovered; it can’t be forced upon a youngster growing up. We cannot expect children to be replicas of us. From the minute they emerge from the womb they are already themselves. That must be honored, and they must be given the tools and opportunities to go as far as they possibly can on their own.
    —Keynote address, Brown University Parents’ Weekend, October 2001
    W hen I was born in September 1952, my father, Franklin, was only twenty-four. Although our relationship was always complex—and became increasingly complicated as I moved into adulthood—as a youngster I delighted in the fact that he was young too. Because he was a college professor, first at Columbia, then at Wesleyan and Yale, his vacations generally coincided with ours. My brother, Ben, and I, my half-brothers Brock and Mark, and my half-sister, Alison, all cherished his attention and the activities we shared with him when we were very young.
    During the Christmas holidays he taught us to ski. He and my stepmother, Helen, bought a tiny cottage in Ludlow, Vermont, close to several ski areas. All five children were on the slopes by age three and skiing on our own by four or five. Once we were on top of the mountainwe waited together as my father stationed himself a hundred yards below. When he was ready we skied down to him one at a time until we were all assembled for his review. Then he would go another hundred yards down the slope and we would repeat the process until we reached the bottom.
    He had a special talent for communicating with each child based on age and skill. I was the oldest and Mark was the youngest, a difference of nearly ten years, with the others spaced fairly evenly in between. For all of us, a word of praise could make our day. On the other hand, because he thought the lift tickets (about $10) were outrageously expensive, we had to be the first ones on the mountain and the last to leave, which could make for a miserable day. Once the tickets were bought we
skied
, weather and snow conditions notwithstanding, with a thirty-minute break for the bathroom and lunch. (I don’t recall any of us ever complaining about the cold or asking to go in early for a cup of hot chocolate.) But we all