NewsBlog: Time mag had a cover story a couple weeks ago titled Blind To Failure: Mountaineers scoffed at the notion that Erik Weihenmayer, sightless since he was 13, could climb Everest. But a killer peak is no obstacle for a man who can conquer adversity.
Buried in the article was this line, “Married in 1997, he and his wife Ellie have a one-year-old daughter, Emma.”
IMHO, the headline should’ve been: Blind climber leaves wife and baby behind, risks life in order to prove himself on Everest. I did similar shit in my younger married days, too, including leaving my sick wife at home so I could ride in a motorcycle event. As it turned out, she was more than sick. She was miscarrying. Yep, what an asshole, I know. I still regret it.
Tired of “supercrips” in the media? So’s this blind woman, who wrote a piece in the Washington Post titled, He’s Your Inspiration, Not Mine.
Funny sidebar to the Post story — From NBC’s “Today” show, June 1:
KATIE COURIC: Also, we’ll be talking with an amazing man who’s very methodically going about making his dreams come true. Thirty-two-year-old Erik Weihenmayer is blind but that isn’t stopping him from attempting to climb the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents. He has just summited his fifth, Mount Everest, and he’ll tell us firsthand about that experience, live from the mountain. Exciting, huh?
MATT LAUER: What a remarkable story!
COURIC: Isn’t he great!
LAUER: He really is. Speaking of greatness, Al Roker is outside with a check of the weather . . . .