Hot Damn this was an inspirational movie (FDR)

[Kire]

It's called Warm Springs. It's an HBO film I just watched on DVD. It inspired me to write this:

Dear Katrina-

What's up?

I am watching the credits roll on this movie and I was inspired to write to you about it.

It's the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's struggle with polio in the years leading up to his triumphant political comeback.

It's all about overcoming the disability, not physically, but psychologically.

There is a girl in this movie who visits Warm Springs, the titular resort that Roosevelt owns where Polio victims go for rehabilitation. She was a dancer and she was obviously affected psychologically (I won't tell you how) by the impact it had on her. When it came time to "Save Warm Springs", she led a production of a song and dance number, done entirely in wheelchairs. I'm writing to you because I know you wanted to be a dancer until your accident made it "difficult" as FDR would say.

In case you didn't know, I like to dance. I like it so much that I'm admired by many people for my dancing ability.

I don't know how to Tango or do the Rumba, or even do the electric slide, but I do know how to dance. It's a state of mind. I could be paralyzed from the neck down, and I would dance for you if you came to visit. I would dance with my eyebrows, and my nose and my tongue. I would even try to use some underutilized muscles, like the ones in my chin or the back of my neck. Dancing is a state of mind. It's not about "getting it right", it's about "getting it".

When I"m on the dance floor and the music is playing, I do one of two things. I work (well, play with would be a better term) one muscle that I've never used before. I work it until it's time to work the next muscle that is calling out to play with me. The other thing I do is that I compete with other dancers. If somebody is doing something with his hands, or with her feet, I imitate what they are doing. But, I don't interrupt them. I wait for them to feel silly and give up, and then I do what they were doing and I take it to where they were going with it. I'm thinking about one time when a guy was crossing his feet, uncrossing them, and crossing them in the opposite order (left front, right back first, then right front, left back first). It was some kind of hipster thing, and he felt silly and that's what everybody remembered. So what I did, is I crossed my right foot over my left and I kept pushing it further and further to the left until I fell on the ground and rolled out of the middle of the dance floor. I got some great applause. The guy who felt silly got none of that.

The movie is called Warm Springs, and it is a wonderful, inspirational tale. Heartwarming, to say the least. It really "gets the circulation going" if you know what I mean. It's from HBO films and is a new release on DVD. I'm sure most of the major retailers have it.

I hope that if you don't get to see it, that you will read my letter and do a little dance, in the best way you know how.

You're my cousin and you're practically my kid sister, so I want you to feel good all the time. If you're doing something that's not physically possible, it's going to hurt. Don't hurt yourself, Katrina.

Good Night and God Bless,

Love,

Erik