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Walking Miracle. Ryan Shazier with Larry Platt.



Walking Miracle.   Ryan Shazier with Larry Platt.

How faith, positive thinking, and passion for football brought me back from paralysis….and helped me find purpose.  

 

Athletes love and play the game of football for a variety of reasons including the action, passion for the game, physicality, camaraderie with teammates and coaches as well as the accolades that go with winning along with performance at high levels among their peers.    Of course, with all of this comes risk of injury.    All the aforementioned is what happened to former Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Ryan Shazier including the life changing injury, unfortunately, which brought his life to a crashing halt.     However, through struggles, the support of many, including a home team fan base, helped turn a very tumultuous time in his life into a positive.    Through all of the toiling, uncertainty and turmoil in the nascent stages of the injury, he found a new purpose in life.    He tells the world about his struggle and growth in the book Walking Miracles.  

The former linebacker, while growing up in South Florida, turned out to be a natural at football and had a strong support system in place.    He overcame Alopecia as a child only to become stronger as a person and player.    Shazier writes about his baldness at an early age, which was a tough adjustment early on but tempering him as he developed throughout his adolescence.   His father, a minister in south Florida, also served as his youth football coach and mentor.     The author writes about his closeness and strong bond with his parents through the entire traumatic process, which certainly paid dividends later in his professional and personal life.     

Traversing tough times may often be followed by choosing something to augment through the experience but also a way to lead life.     While Shazier likely did look for inspiration from a higher calling, especially through his minister father, he was also introduced to and quickly bought into a philosophical look at his life and attitude.   Shazier reports that he found inspiration through stoicism, a philosophy that distinguishes what we can control from what we cannot.  Consequently, the book is bedizened with quotes from notable stoic followers such as Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor and Epictetus, a former slave.   One such example that fueled Shazier’s comeback “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not but rejoices for those which he has.”  It is evident that the former Ohio State Buckeye had to focus on what he could do, even if the odds were bleak in the early going.  

His comeback attempt deployed the use of many visualizations that help train the mind and body for future success.    However, Shazier cautioned that our mindset should not only imagine the success but also follow what the stoics call negative visualization.    The author quotes Epictetus asking and answering “Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.”  Shazier expresses a responsible and realistic mindset through the extreme arduous process of coming back from a physically disabling event.     

Through the latter part of the book, Shazier, who along with his close friend and personal trainer, helped coin the phrase Ya gotta “Shalieve”, yearned for new personal fulfillment to be gained in his new and now unexpected life path particularly after it became apparent a return to the gridiron was unlikely.    Upon reflection of his own rehabilitation experiences and observations of many others afflicted with paralysis and other life debilitating ailments, a new purpose was ultimately derived.   He proudly writes that he established and continues to lead a foundation that helps raise money and supports the many financial and emotional needs for patients afflicted with life altering injuries.    

Walking Miracle is about two hundred and thirty-five pages.   It is a fairly easy tale to navigate.    The writing prose is straightforward and is written in a narrative form.  Some attempt with humor was made throughout the book.   A lot of questions were posed that tried to keep the gravity of the situation, and main reason why the book was written, on the lighter side.     While Shazier never did make it back on the grid iron, it could still be argued that it is a miracle today that he is able to walk, to pursue a new purpose and lead an otherwise normal life.    There is much for the reader to gain from this biography and Shazier’s story can easily connect with people from all walks of life.     

 

·       You might like to read this book if you are a Ryan Shazier fan.

·       You might like to read this book if you like to read about the Pittsburgh Steelers.

·       You might like to read this book If you covet stories about American football players.

·       You might like to read this book if you relish biographies of American professional athletes.

·       You might like to read this book if you seek information about people with paralysis and their struggles and triumphs through physical and mental rehabilitation.   

 

Learn more about the authors on X:

https://x.com/RyanShazier

https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/about/the-philadelphia-citizen-masthead/larry-platt/


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