Your Hands Are Tied

You know how it goes when your hands are tied, don't you? It means you are unable to move forward, you can't progress, or help someone, or do something for some cause because your hands are tied due to circumstances beyond your control. So you are not responsible for your lack of action. Right?

And that is true, of course, if you are Nelson Mandela imprisoned in Robben Island for several decades, or
Victor Frankl, imprisoned in Auschwitz long enough for most members of his family to be gassed, or
Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, imprisoned for ten long years in the Gulag. It was also true for Christopher Reeve, imprisoned in his quadriplegic body that no longer allowed him to fly - Superman-style - through the skies. It's also true for Aimée Mullin, with no legs below the knee joint, Sabriye Tenberken with no sight, Helen Keller with no sight, Randy Pausch getting ready to die prior to that last lecture, and so on. We all understand that these people have now or have had their hands tied and therefore could not do anything for others. Right?

Wrong, of course, because we know, or at least some of us know, how much good precisely these people, despite the overwhelming odds against them did for others!

So you might like to re-evaluate your particular situation of having your hands tied. Is it truly so? Or are you just in your physical, emotional or spiritual comfort zone? What would happen if you stepped beyond its threshold? What could you do?


Photo Credit: Filomena Scalise