One of my favorite books to read to my son is I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont with wonderful illustrations by David Catrow. It was given to us by my Aunt Carol and really celebrates the idea of accepting ourselves for who we are. The exuberance the young girl the book uses to express that, no matter what, she is truly happy to be who she is and there is no one else she’d rather be, transcends into a universality of self-acceptance. I am often asked after performances or presentations if I ever wonder or wish what it would be like to have both my hands. I always tell the… read more →
I tell this story during my keynote about how my greatest anxiety is shaking hands. Most people do not realize I am missing my right hand and so it is inevitable they will stick out their right hand to shake. I have this choice: I could put out my right hand to shake but I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, so I extend my left hand instead, which makes us both feel uncomfortable. You have this split second thought, “why did he just stick out his left hand – oh my God, I feel like a nincompoop.” And I have the split second thought, “oh no, I just made… read more →
The first day of school always started the same for me. “Abner Harrell” the teacher would say. (Even though I made sure to get to class early and request they use my middle name, David, when they called attendance). Every year it was the same story, all the way through high school. The first day of school would remind this guy, Chris Reed, of my first name and I’d spend the next two weeks relentlessly getting “Abner” cat calls. He’d soon forget about it and I’d go back to being “David” for the rest of the year. I did not like my name very much. I wondered why my father… read more →
A few months ago I performed a portion of my solo play A Little Potato and Hard to Peel for a morning assembly at a high school in Nashville, TN. I had to cut the show to 25 minutes and felt good about the cutting and thought it had gone well with the audience. It was a tough audience; a high school in a morning assembly is never the easiest audience, but they were with me. They were laughing and I felt a good energy. The assembly ended and the kids were shuffling out for the remainder of their day. I started to put away my props. “Excuse me sir,… read more →
A few weeks ago I was volunteering at a camp for young kids with limb loss, Camp No Limits. I love coming to camp because I meet amazing individuals who refuse to accept limitations no matter what their circumstances. One of the favorite games in camp is “Rubber Chicken Baseball.” Here are the rules: one team will throw the rubber chicken to the fielding team. They will then form a tight circle and their “runner” will run around the circle, each full trip around the circle equals a run or point. The fielding team will retrieve the thrown rubber chicken and quickly form a single file line. Once the line… read more →
I saw a story on PBS last week about a young man who was born without his right hand, very similar to me, who is hoping to be the first human to receive a full hand transplant. You can read the story here. I felt for this young man, his insecurity and frustration in having to adapt to do daily tasks was completely recognizable. I began to think, what if this surgery wasn’t difficult? What if it was a little out patient shindig with little to no complications? Would I want it? Would my 12-year-old-middle-school self want it? I don’t want it and I would tell my 12-year-old self he… read more →