Good morning, digital neighbors! Happy Wednesday to all you fine souls scattered across Rubin Report, Phetasy, Outspoken, and Padre’s. Here is a post I shared back on Locals in 2021 in the various communities I was haunting at the time. I share it again on this wonderful morning. Here is a prayer that may be familiar to many of you. It is often associated with Henry Viscardi Jr. and speaks of praying for what we want and receiving what we need. His prayer is most commonly attributed to an unknown Confederate soldier (sometimes called “A Creed for Those Who Have Suffered”). Viscardi used it, popularized it in disability-advocacy circles.

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve. I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy. I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of others. I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life. I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am most richly blessed.

This is a variation I found on the internet written in the first person. I have often seen it written in the third person (“He asked for…”). Some biographical information about this amazing man that should encourage the rest of us to strive for more rather than whine at the difficulties we will face in life:

Hank Viscardi, the son of an Italian barber, was born in New York City in 1912 with what doctors called “arrested development of the lower limbs.” He spent the first six years of his life in the hospital as doctors tried to strengthen his short, twisted thighs so that they could carry his weight. He underwent many corrective surgeries and endured painful traction. Finally, he was fitted with casts that enabled him to walk. Because of all his hospitalization, Viscardi hardly knew his mother and had not yet met his two sisters.

In the next eight years, Viscardi breezed through the primary grades and high school. He also served as manager of the basketball team and covered school sports for the New York Times. He earned money refereeing basketball games. When his father died, Viscardi and his older sister had to provide for his mother and three younger sisters. Still, when the time came, his family decided that Viscardi would go to college.

Viscardi worked his way through Fordham University by sweeping floors, waiting on tables, and helping in the administration office. He graduated as an honor student.

At age 27, Viscardi was fitted with his first artificial legs. During World War II, he served as a field-service officer for the Red Cross, where he worked with amputees. By 1947, he was director of personnel at Burlington Mills Corp., but he noticed that others with physical disabilities were unable to find employment. This inspired Viscardi to become a pioneer in aiding people with disabilities.

In 1952, Viscardi founded Abilities, Inc., where he helped train adults with disabilities and find them jobs. In 1962, he established the Human Resources School, which was renamed after him in 1992. The author of eight books, he is best known for A Man’s Stature, which was printed in 1952 and reprinted in 1987.
Viscardi advised every president from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter on issues affecting people with disabilities. He spoke of the philosophy that had sustained him in his pioneering years of work with the disabled when he said, “Life demands love. Loving means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all. Faith means believing the unbelievable, and to hope means hoping when things are hopeless.”

Viscardi said that what he achieved personally and professionally could have happened only in America. “In what other land would I, a person born without legs, have been given the opportunity to become a learned man? I learned a great lesson from the doctor who gave me artificial legs,” he said. “When I couldn’t pay his bill, he told me if I would make the difference for one other life, a life dependent on the charity of family or the community, that his bill would be repaid. I’m still paying that bill.”

1983 Horatio Alger Award Recipient. (The above information was taken from their site.)

Hank Viscardi with children