I Miss The Acceptance

Sponsored by :Alvord Taylor: Endless Possibilities

I Miss The Acceptance

There’s a new movie I highly recommend you see.

It’s called “Champions” starring Woody Harrelson.

I’ve never been a big Harrelson fan until now.

I interviewed Harrelson years ago in the Bijou Theater in Eugene, Oregon.

I can’t remember what movie it was he was there to promote but I remember asking him during the interview “Are you stoned?” to which he replied “Yes, you can tell?”

His recent COVID roast on SNL impressed the hell out of me.

This guy stands up for what he believes, culture be damned.

But this movie shows an even more impressive side of this actor.

Champions is about a basketball coach who is struggling to find himself, gets fired, pulled over for drunk driving and sentenced to three months community service coaching a team of players with intellectual disabilities.

The critics don’t think much of the movie but the audiences like it a lot and so did we.

The actors playing the team members are actors with disabilities.

The film is charming, funny, heartwarming and thought provoking.

Watching it brought up all kinds of memories for me back in Oregon.

I have/had a lot of friends in the disabilities community.

Man, how I miss them.

There’s an acceptance they give the world that you don’t find in the so-called normal population.

Three years after the start of the lockdowns the residue from that dark time lingers.

One of our podcast clients/supporters is the Alvord Taylor group in Springfield.

I was talking with the new director the other day and we agreed the disabilities community may be best at showing us all how to come back together.

They tend to be folks who “get over” things and move on because they truly want to accept and be accepted.

On the way home from the film Kathy and I talked about “the community” we miss back home. All the friends we had in the disabled community and how much they touched our lives.

I miss them.

I miss that.

I long for the pure acceptance only they seem able to give.

“Champions” yep, they truly are the picture of strength, perseverance and love.