ArcaMax

On the Sunday evening of Labor Day weekend, after a delightful dinner with close friends, I tripped over one of those ubiquitous electric rent-a-scooters. I went down hard, landing on my knee and arm, though luckily not hitting my head. At home that night, I couldn't even bend my left elbow enough to remove my earrings or necklace. For those who know me well, the surest sign of injury is that I couldn't summon the strength in my left hand or arm to floss my teeth. Quelle horreur!

A couple of days later, I got an X-ray and confirmed that the arm was indeed fractured at the elbow. I relate this tale not to seek your sympathy -- though who doesn't welcome a little loving-kindness in this world? -- but to make a point about gratitude. I am thankful that, for the most part, my body works.

Without a functioning left hand, it becomes a challenge to do ordinary things like pull on your socks, pants, shirts and jackets. Tying shoes is a task! Simple gestures like plugging the charger cable into your phone require contortions. To fasten a seatbelt on the driver's side, I have to reach over my left shoulder with my right hand. You can't unscrew a soda bottle or a jar of peanut butter -- to say nothing of mixing, stirring, chopping, slicing and the various other two-handed motions involved in preparing food. Want to peel an orange? Sorry, no. And speaking of opening things, the fiends at the Kenvue consumer health company have designed Tylenol bottles to be child-proof -- which also means that they are impossible to open with one hand.

My pain and inconvenience are temporary, though, which is a good reminder of the people who live with disabilities forever. I had been marveling just last week about Josh Turek, who's running for Senate in Iowa. Born with spina bifida, Turek went on to become a Paralympian in wheelchair basketball. This man has an iron will. Here's a description of his early years from The New York Times:

"The Tureks' oldest boy (Josh) had surgery after surgery on his clubfoot, his faulty hips and his stunted spine. He didn't crawl until he was 3. He didn't walk until he was 5. He lugged his legs with a herky-jerky gait until he started using a wheelchair at 10. He was bullied so badly that he moved to Missouri for middle school, living with his great aunt and attending the Christian school where she taught."

When he was campaigning door-to-door for a state House seat in 2022, Turek would sometimes drag himself and his wheelchair upstairs to knock on people's front doors. This caused more than a few eyebrows to rise in amazement. "Always, the first question is, 'How in the world did you get up here?'" Turek recounted. "And I say, 'I dragged my wheelchair up here. That's how important your vote is.'"

Sen. Bob Dole lived 77 of his 98 years without the use of his right arm and hand. Serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy during World War II, Dole was struck by a German shell that shattered his collarbone and shoulder and damaged part of his spine. He was paralyzed from the neck down when medics reached him. Assuming he would die, they gave him the biggest possible safe dose of morphine and drew an M on his forehead in his own blood to warn other medics against accidentally killing him with more. Transported back home to Kansas for treatment, he spent three long years in military hospitals, relearning every task of life. A key figure in Dole's recovery, both physical and emotional, was an orthopedic surgeon, Hampar Kelikian, himself a survivor of the Armenian genocide. The paralysis gradually receded, but Dole never regained the use of his right arm or hand. He habitually carried a pen in his permanently closed fist to deter people from attempting to shake that hand. Throughout his life, he struggled with dressing, eating and personal care.

Also treated at the same hospital was Daniel Inouye, who lost his arm fighting in Italy, and Philip Hart, who was wounded on D-Day. The three became friends and later served together: Inouye as senator from Hawaii, and Hart as senator from Michigan. Two Democrats and one Republican -- all friends at a time when political competition was not war.

Many people suffer with handicaps that are not obvious to the naked eye. I recently learned that a friend has tinnitus. How crazy-making that must be. And of course, there are scads of ailments -- from colitis to grief to fibromyalgia to depression to lupus -- that cause pain, embarrassment and even sometimes agony but are not obvious to outsiders.

Every healthy, pain-free day is a great gift. Or, to paraphrase Ian Maclaren, most people you meet are waging quiet battles of some kind, so be kind if you can.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her book, "Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism," is available now.

Copyright 2026 Creators Syndicate Inc.