As many of you probably already know I have been playing wheelchair basketball for more than 10 years and I am now the coach of a wheelchair basketball team.
The biggest teaching I received through the year is that walking, not having urinary infections many times a year, being able to comprehend what others are telling me and being able to express myself properly…are real gifts that are often taken for granted but they are surely not!
I was with Valentino (a guy you can find into both documentaries, that you can find here) and we were having a wheelchair basketball demonstration. By demonstration I mean that we were going to a school a whole morning (or more) and on a basis of 2 hours with two classes, we presented and then make them trying the game. With us. Against us. It was much fun.
Source: Author. Valentino here explaining the first action in the basketball game: the Two-Ball.
Anyway, one day I had some troubles with my work and a Venture I was working on. I was complaining about the fact that I was not happy with how my partners were doing something and he simply asked me:
Are you able to do it by yourself? If yes, do it. Otherwise, understand how to do it or listen to them that they have more experience. In the worst case, go on with your life and do not let some working stuffs compromise your daily mood.
In the end we must not take life too seriously, since we cannot make it alive.
Source: Author. Presentation of our Documentary into a school.
Well, to me this changed all my perspective. I understood how lucky I was working with people knowing more than me in several fields, learning from them, getting to create my personal brand and so on.
Everything was taken for granted.
In another occasion, another guy from the documentary taught me how lucky I was with my health. We were drinking some Ice-tea, with the funky thin cane with the tricky wrapping. He had not enough sensitivity in his hands so he asked me to open the thin cane from the wrapping since he was trying to do it with his teeth but still the can was slipping.
Source: Author. Here a picture of some of us, attending a wine event in Modena, showing that the city centre is accessible.
I did it, and then I said to myself
Holy God, how in the Earth can I complain about anything that is happening in my life when I am 99% independent in all of the things I usually do on a daily base AND I am healthy enough to tell it.
At that point, I got humbled, raised my sensitivity to such topics and I acknowledged how my health, independence and other innate things are not granted at all. They could have been compromised at the birth, or already getting compromised during my life.
