By Andrea Scarpino
I was washing the dishes and listening to NPR on the radio. Not really listening. Daydreaming. And then, a slow, hilting, melodic voice: Representative Gabrielle Giffords reading from the last chapter of her audio book. Representative Giffords, who was shot in the head less than one year ago by a shooter standing only feet away. On the radio, she was reading, speaking slowly but clearly.
Most of the ensuing story was an interview with her husband, Mark Kelly, who has always seemed more optimistic about her progress than I believed, has maintained that she was progressing quickly, working hard, walking. I didn’t think he was lying, exactly, but maybe painting a prettier picture than existed. She was shot in the head, remember, from point-blank range. That’s not an injury most people even survive.
And it’s true that she’s walking only very short distances—to the mailbox, he said—and that she speaks very short sentences. It’s true that she may never regain all of the mental or physical function that she had before being shot. But as the interview progressed, I realized how central to Giffords’ recovery that optimism has been. The belief that she will return to work, that she will run for re-election, that she will ride her bike again, has clearly been an incredible source of motivation, of inspiration.
Of course, Giffords also has the benefit of stellar health insurance, of having been treated immediately after being shot, of access to the best doctors, physical therapists, speech therapists. I would never suggest that optimism alone helps much of anything. But when faced with such a devastating injury, maybe the only course of action is to believe more than seems possible, to work toward more than anyone else believes possible. Maybe the only way to progress is near-delusional optimism.
Mark Kelly is an astronaut, after all, a man who has done the impossible, who has left this Earth—and then returned. Traveling through space, then returning safely: doesn’t that take an overwhelming belief in the impossible? An overwhelming optimism?
The interview ended, and NPR played another clip from Representative Giffords’ audio book. Again that lovely, melodic voice, stilted and beautiful. “It's frustrating, mentally hard, hard work,” she said. “I'm trying, trying so hard to get better. I will get stronger. I will return.”
That optimism. That belief. And in the quality of her voice, in her pauses, in her repetition, she spoke like a poet. And I heard poetry.
Poet and essayist Andrea Scarpino is a regular contributor to POTB. You can visit her at:
Planet of the Blind 