I recently watched a movie called "Gifted Hands" which I found to be pretty inspiring. I love movies based on real life and this one proved to be worth it. Ben Carson played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. starts out life with less-than-ideal circumstances. He has trouble in school, had a bad temper, and lived in a fatherless home. He did, however, have a very special mother that believed in her children and taught them that despite their circumstances, they could be anything they dreamed of if they worked at it. She encouraged Ben to use his imagination (elephant - from "The Ant and the Elephant" book by Bill Peet) and learned early on that television was not going to aid in getting their dreams. She limited their tv time to 2 pre-determined shows per week. When they complained, she sent them to the library and told them to read 2 books per week.
This turned out to be a changing point in young Ben Carson's life. He began to love reading and started his self-directed education. He quickly turned his failing grades around and became one of the smartest students at his school. He would devour books in any subject that interested him and eventually settled in to the biology field, which led him to be a doctor. He was amazed at the power and mystery of the brain calling it the only part of the body that really is a miracle. Every other part of the body was pretty well understood and you could predict what would happen...except the brain. The brain was so powerful that no one really knew how it could do what it does. This led him to be a neurologist.
The most inspiring part of the story for me was how he pretty much learned all he knew from reading books. It was the way he learned and even skipped college lectures while he read and excelled beyond many of his peers. He became one of the most educated doctors in his field primarily from his own studies outside of the formal classroom. This is very much like what the "Mental Fitness Challenge" provides. I am pretty sure I read more non-fiction, life-changing books than the average person. But who wants to be average?
This turned out to be a changing point in young Ben Carson's life. He began to love reading and started his self-directed education. He quickly turned his failing grades around and became one of the smartest students at his school. He would devour books in any subject that interested him and eventually settled in to the biology field, which led him to be a doctor. He was amazed at the power and mystery of the brain calling it the only part of the body that really is a miracle. Every other part of the body was pretty well understood and you could predict what would happen...except the brain. The brain was so powerful that no one really knew how it could do what it does. This led him to be a neurologist.
The most inspiring part of the story for me was how he pretty much learned all he knew from reading books. It was the way he learned and even skipped college lectures while he read and excelled beyond many of his peers. He became one of the most educated doctors in his field primarily from his own studies outside of the formal classroom. This is very much like what the "Mental Fitness Challenge" provides. I am pretty sure I read more non-fiction, life-changing books than the average person. But who wants to be average?
Here's a summary of the movie from Wikipedia:
The movie begins in present day 1987, where Dr. Ben Carson (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) goes to Germany to visit a couple named Peter and Augusta Rausch, who have twins conjoined at the head. Ben knows that chances of saving them both will be at risk, because one baby always dies in situations like that. Ben agrees to do the operation, but he will wait four months so he can come up with a plan to save them both. While looking into some of his books, the movie flashes back to the year 1961, where 11 year old Ben Carson (Jaishon Fisher) starts out life as an African American child from a one-parent home with failing grades at school. Ben has an older brother named Curtis. His mother, who dropped out in the third grade, starts making decisions for him. When her boys need to learn multiplication tables, she has them swear to learn them while she is gone to check herself into a mental institution. When she sees her two sons' success hindered by TV, she schedules timings to watch tv, boys show great interest in watching only a quiz show later on and commands them to read two books per week from the library and give her a book report, she also moves them to better schools.
Meanwhile as time passes, Ben learns how to multiply and to spell. He starts to explore the world of books, and he grows in it. He begins to show a temper; Ben almost hits his mom with a hammer while arguing with her about what pants he should wear for school and almost kills his best friend as a teenager. His friend was saved as the knife that he used to stab him broke when it hit the buckle of his belt.
Having almost killed someone because of his temper, he realizes that he can't do anything about it. He runs to his room and cries out to God, praying that He delivers him from his temper.
He becomes the top student in his eighth grade class, third in his high school class and with hard work and strong determination, he got a scholarship to college, passed the MCAT and went on to medical school. He meets his girlfriend Candy, whom he falls in love with. One day, when he struggles with a test study, she helps him out and Ben eventually passes and gets an A.
In the year 1976, Carson faced adversity from fellow doctors and students while working at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. It is here where he performed an operation as a resident without supervision, risking his medical career to save a man's life. Then in the year of 1985, he saves the life of a girl who has seizures 100 times a day, by removing only half of her brain that was responsible for seizures, procedure called 'hemispherectomy". Candy later becomes pregnant with twins, but loses the babies from a bloody miscarriage. Ben's mother later moves in with the family.
Then the movie goes back to where it began: the year of 1987. Ben is eventually convinced to operate on the two twins, and he manages to make the operation successful, and both twins are saved.
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