感动你我Team Hoyt 世上最强壮的父亲
The strongest dad in the world----Team Hoyt
Website:http://www.teamhoyt.com/
Video:
http://article.pchome.net/00/15/54/46/?246,
Chinese version from :
http://www.caobian.info/?p=1367
by David Tereshchuk
Article courtesy of multi'merica.com
It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.
For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.
At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.
"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now."
The couple brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible. Within five years, Rick had two younger brothers, and the Hoyts were convinced Rick was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to agree: "Because he couldn’t talk they thought he wouldn’t be able to understand, but that wasn’t true." The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. "We always wanted Rick included in everything," Dick said. "That’s why we wanted to get him into public school."
A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build — using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to call it "my communicator." A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.
When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first "spoken" words. They had expected perhaps "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad." But on the screen Rick wrote "Go Bruins." The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. "So we learned then that Rick loved sports," said Dick.
In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing."
Rick’s realization turned into a whole new set of horizons that opened up for him and his family, as "Team Hoyt" began to compete in more and more events. Rick reflected on the transformation process for me, using his now-familiar but ever-painstaking technique of picking out letters of the alphabet:
It is hard to imagine now the resistance which the Hoyts encountered early on, but attitudes did begin to change when they entered the Boston Marathon in 1981, and finished in the top quarter of the field. Dick recalls the earlier, less tolerant days with more sadness than anger:
"Nobody wanted Rick in a road race. Everybody looked at us, nobody talked to us, nobody wanted to have anything to do with us. But you can’t really blame them - people often are not educated, and they’d never seen anyone like us. As time went on, though, they could see he was a person — he has a great sense of humor, for instance. That made a big difference."
After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon — and for this Dick had to learn to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old."
With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick’s waist as he swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father’s Day 1985.
"We chuckle to think about that as my Father’s Day present from Rick, " said Dick.
They have been competing ever since, at home and increasingly abroad. Generally they manage to improve their finishing times. "Rick is the one who inspires and motivates me, the way he just loves sports and competing," Dick said.
And the business of inspiring evidently works as a two-way street. Rick typed out this testimony:
The Hoyts’ mutual inspiration for each other seems to embrace others too — many spectators and fellow-competitors have adopted Team Hoyt as a powerful example of determination. "It’s been funny," said Dick "Some people have turned out, some in good shape, some really out of shape, and they say ‘we want to thank you, because we’re here because of you’."
Rick too has taken full note of their effect on fellow-competitors while racing:
Most of all, perhaps, the Hoyts can see an impact from their efforts in the area of the handicapped, and on public attitudes toward the physically and mentally challenged.
"That’s the big thing," said Dick. "People just need to be educated. Rick is helping many other families coping with disabilities in their struggle to be included."
That is not to say that all obstacles are now overcome for the Hoyts. Dick is "still bothered," he says, by people who are discomforted because Rick cannot fully control his tongue while eating. "In restaurants - and it’s only older people mostly - they’ll see Rick’s food being pushed out of his mouth and they’ll leave, or change their table. But I have to say that kind of intolerance is gradually being defeated."
Rick’s own accomplishments, quite apart from the duo’s continuing athletic success, have included his moving on from high school to Boston University, where he graduated in 1993 with a degree in special education. That was followed a few weeks later by another entry in the Boston Marathon. As he fondly pictured it: "On the day of the marathon from Hopkinton to Boston people all over the course were wishing me luck, and they had signs up which read `congratulations on your graduation!’"
Rick now works at Boston College’s computer laboratory helping to develop a system codenamed "Eagle Eyes," through which mechanical aids (like for instance a powered wheelchair) could be controlled by a paralyzed person’s eye-movements, when linked-up to a computer.
Together the Hoyts don’t only compete athletically; they also go on motivational speaking tours, spreading the Hoyt brand of inspiration to all kinds of audiences, sporting and non-sporting, across the country.
Rick himself is confident that his visibility — and his father’s dedication — perform a forceful, valuable purpose in a world that is too often divisive and exclusionary. He typed a simple parting thought:
David Tereshchuk is a documentary television producer. He currently works for the United Nations.
一段令人震撼的片子，这部影片叫”Team Hoyt”
是在讲一对父子的故事
爸爸叫做Dick Hoyt
儿子叫做Rick Hoyt
这对父子是长跑健将
在过去二十五年间
他们一共跑了3770 miles
其中包括78次半马拉松赛，64次的马拉松赛，24次著名的波士顿马拉松赛，20 次Duathlons赛，7 次18.6 Milers赛，34 次 10 Milers赛 ，143 次5 Milers赛，620Milers 赛，27次 Falmouth 7.1 milers赛，15次 4 Milers赛，2次11公里赛，8次15公里赛，204 次10公里赛，4 次8公里赛，92 次5公里赛，206 次奥运标准的三项铁人赛,6次 被公认不是平常人可以承受的Ironman distances的终极三项铁人赛……
但是你知道吗?
儿子Rick是不能说话也不能走路的!!
Rick在出生时因脐带绕颈导致脑部缺氧受损，医生告诉Dick，孩子是植物人，没有任何希望了因此他只能在轮椅上渡过他的一生。Dick引述在Rick九个月大时，医生对他和他妻祖迪（Judy）说︰「他从此会像植物人一样，还是把他送到疗养院吧。」
然而，他们两夫妇对此并不认同。他们发觉当他们在屋内活动时，Rick的眼睛会紧盯着他们。当Rick十一岁时，他们把他送到特夫斯大学 （Tufts University）的工程系，询问是否有令孩子与人沟通的办法，可惜Dick得到的回复是︰「不可能，他根本没有任何脑部活动。」
Dick反驳说︰「跟他说个笑话吧。」他们便说了个笑话，Rick果然笑了，证明了他的脑内确有不少活动。结果，他们为Rick加装了一部能用头的侧面控制鼠标标的计算机， Rick终于能和外界沟通了！
在Rick十五岁时，Rick的一位中学的同学因意外而瘫痪了，学校为那位学生举行跑步筹款，Rick便透过计算机打出︰「爸，我也想参加。」Dick之前并非跑步运动员，也没有跑过马拉松赛，但因为儿子的要求就参加了，于是他就推着Rick跑完了5mile的全程。
在结束之后Rick对父亲说:”我今生第一次不觉得残障了!”这句话深深地震撼了爸爸Dick！他决心要把那种感觉尽可能带给儿子，预备好参加 1979年 的波士顿马拉松。「不接受报名。」便是比赛当局给Dick的话，原因是Hoyt父子既不是单独跑手，又不是轮椅参赛者。结果几年来，Hoyt父子只在赛事 中跟着大队一起跑，但他们终于找到正式参加比赛的方法︰
1983年，他们参加了另一个马拉松，他们速度之快，令他们能入围参加之后一年的波士顿马拉松。
不久后便有人对Dick说︰「何不参加三项铁人赛？」一个从来未曾学过游泳的人，一个自六岁起便从未踏过单车的人，如何能拖着110磅（50公斤）的儿子完成三项全能赛？
但Dick还是勇于一试。屈指一算，他现在已完成了212次三项全能赛，当中包括了四次在夏威夷举行，极费体力的15小时铁人赛！
因着父爱，父亲去学习游泳，学习踏自行车…
他愿意为Rick做出许多的牺牲和付出，他又曾拖着他的儿子越野滑雪，又曾背着他爬山，其中一次更用单车拉着他横越美国。
于是从那时候开始他们父子就常以”Team Hoyt”报名参加马拉松和三项铁人赛:跑步时Dick就推着Rick跑游泳时Dick就拖着Rick躺着的橡皮艇游。骑自行车时Dick就骑着特制的自行车将Rick放在自行车前骑乘……
那么Dick为何不试试自己一个人参加比赛，看看表现如何？「我不会独个儿参赛。」Dick说。他参加比赛纯粹是为了当他们一起跑步、游泳和踏单车，看到Rick面上露出甜美笑容时的「奇妙感觉」。
今年，Dick与Rick分别65和43岁，已完成了他们第24次波士顿马拉松，在20,000名参赛者中排名第5,083。他们的最佳时间？是在1992年的两小时40分——只落后世界纪录35分钟；当然，或许你还未留意到，这纪录是由一个没有推着轮椅的人所创的。
两年前，在一次比赛中，Dick轻微心脏病发。其后医生发现他的一条大动脉有95%栓塞了。其中一名医生对他说︰「若非你一直保持着这样好的状态， 你大可 能15年前已不久于人世。」现在，尽管Rick有自己的住宅单位（他享有居家照料服务）并在波士顿工作，而Dick从军队退役后已在麻萨诸塞州的荷兰市居 住，但他们总有团聚的方法。他们经常在全国各地发表演说，而每周末也会参加极耗体力的比赛，当中包括今年的父亲节。
当晚，Dick会请父亲吃晚饭，但他最想送给父亲的礼物，是他永远买不到的。Rick打道︰「我最想送给爸爸的，是爸爸坐在椅上，由我推他一次！」
看这部短片时我深受感动
在影片中Dick推着Rick通过终点时他们父子都受到众人的鼓掌和欢呼。但这中间Rick什么都没有做…
他也什么也都不能做…
一切都因为他父亲的爱而白白领受这些…
再看这支纪录片(记得开喇叭…听I can only imagine …..)
歌词：
I can only imagine…
I can only imagine what it will be like, when I walk by Your side…
I can only imagine, what my eyes will see, when Your Face is before me!
I can only imagine. I can only imagine.
Surrounded by Your Glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you, Jesus? Or in awe of You, be still?
Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing ‘Hallelujah!’? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine! I can only imagine!
I can only imagine, when that day comes, when I find myself standing in the Sun!
I can only imagine, when all I will do, is forever, forever worship You!
I can only imagine! I can only imagine!
Surrounded by Your Glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you, Jesus? Or in awe of You, be still?
Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing ‘Hallelujah!’? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine! Yeah! I can only imagine!
Surrounded by Your Glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you, Jesus? Or in awe of You, be still?
Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing ‘Hallelujah!’? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine! Yeah! I can only imagine!
I can only imagine! Yeah! I can only imagine!! Only imagine!!!
I can only imagine.
I can only imagine, when all I do is forever, forever worship You!
I can only imagine.
posted by Keipo @ 2:19 AM
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