Thank God I Got Polio: A Life of Adventure and the Adventure of Life. by Wayne Raffesberger
Wayne Raffesberger remembered that quote from Mark Twain and uses it as a rallying cry for the way he would live his life, as told vividly in his memoir, Thank God I Got Polio: A Life of Adventure and the Adventure of Life.
A DRIVE TO OVERCOME ADVERSITY
While Raffesberger refers to polio in his book title, describes the physical and emotional challenges he encountered as a young boy, and acknowledges that it shaped his life, this is not so much a book about polio as it is about a person who rose to the occasion on account of it, wanting to prove something to his early-life naysayers and doubters — as well as himself — and seek out adventures that fully healthy people might be hard-pressed to undertake.
“Polio shaped my entire life … It showed me the best in people and at times the worst,” he writes. “It led me to adventures and challenges that others would have never attempted.”
Polio reared its ugly head in the 1950s. In 1952, nearly 58,000 cases were reported. When four-year-old Wayne fell out of bed one morning and then couldn’t get up, his parents quickly realized what they were witnessing.
After years of struggling to keep up with his classmates physically, Wayne dove into sports for the pure pleasure and also to prove himself. But after a while, mere games were not enough. “Always present was a lingering sense that I needed something more, an element of risk, even danger,” he writes, clinging to “a desire to show myself and the world that a child considered sickly and weak could one day overcome anything.”
His experiences revved up — climbing dangerous mountains, undertaking treacherous scuba diving expeditions, skydiving, backpacking and lots more. His adventures took him around the world. At one point he booked a one-way ticket to Australia, via Fiji and Hawaii. His expeditions took him through Southeast Asia and India.
NEVER WASTE A MOMENT
In Thank God I Got Polio, Wayne Raffesberger has provided us with a diverse and extensive travel log, as well as an inspirational story of how hope and faith can take us to places that might seem out of reach. Despite his physical burden, he has lived life to the fullest, shown by example, and stands ready and willing to share his story so all might benefit.
“I traveled to run toward something. Toward that life of adventure I vowed to myself years earlier … Reading about foreign places enthralled me, and here I was, experiencing them in person. The same boy who had once been told he might never walk again was wandering alone through the world.”
Did he ever have any regrets, or wonder “why me?” In the spirit of the Mark Twain quote, Raffesberger writes, “I never wasted a moment thinking about what might have been. I only thought of what was accomplished.”
About Wayne Raffesberger:
Wayne Raffesberger is a retired lawyer, political aide, director of business non-profits, university lecturer, small businessman and freelance writer. He has authored dozens of commentaries and opinion pieces that have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the country. Raffesberger’s short stories have been published in local anthologies in San Diego, CA and recognized in the international Lorian Hemingway Short Story Writing Contest in Key West, FL. His first book, Thank God I Got Polio: A Life of Adventure and the Adventure of Life, was published in late 2021. Visit wayneraffesberger.com.
