The famous Chicago Bulls basketball player Bob Love was interviewed on Up To Date. He goes all over the country speaking on behalf of the Bulls organization and speaking about his rise in the NBA, his fall, and his rise again as an employee of the Chicago Bulls.
Typically I wouldn’t be blogging about something like this but Bob Love has something in common with me. He stutters. And considering Oct 22nd is International Stuttering Awareness Day I figured this was appropriate. Please take time to listen to the interview.
As you can tell his speech disorder totally derails the feel of the interview. Fortunately Steve Kraske is generous in his conversation which is rare. (The world needs a few more billion people that way.) Below I want to post a few comments about the interview.
Bob had a pretty tough life even by the average stutterers standards. “I had done it all but I couldn’t talk.“ His testimony about the affect his stutter had on him as a child and through out his adulthood I could definitely relate to. If you’ve ever wondered what somebody “like that” feels like he makes it pretty clear.
They try to build his story as having a resolution but for the few with a stutter you see that there was no resolution. He was however without a job and the Chicago Bulls offered him a job. But that is far removed from being able to freely speak.
He said something I’ve thought for quite some time but I always felt people wouldn’t understand so I’ve never verbalized it. The worst disability you could have is the inability to communicate. Or the way I’ve always thought of it is that the worst feeling is having something to say and not be able to say it. It may seem selfish to think that ,but for me I’d rather be without a limb than have a stutter. If that offends you I apologize but its pretty common to here somebody with a speech disorder say.
Bob said, “Those of them that have the gift of speech have the most wonderful gift in the world.“ I absolutely agree. If this is you (which it is for 99% of you) then you need to sit on that for an hour and just try to capture a piece of that thought.
He claims he never played a victim. Which is something I sometimes tend to do. Really its hard not to at times. But its like he said, its not about how many times you get knocked down its about how many times you get back up. (I think that was pulled from Rocky) And it is true but after a while you start asking yourself how many times do I have to get back up?
If you know somebody with a speech disorder or a similar affliction I recommend you listen to Bobs story in honor of the coming International Stuttering Awareness Day.
Just a dude with a blog that probably shouldn't have one.
you probably won’t get many responses to this… mainly because like myself, we all have something “to say” until it comes to responding to an individual who can’t “say” much. I did want to comment that I liked what you said- “the worst feeling is having something to say and not be able to say it”… for me that is powerful because so often we all have waaay tooo much.
*I do applaud you Randy, you try so hard and you overlook people’s blank stares or inabilities to make eye contact with you when you stutter. Adults are the worst. It’s like they don’t know how to react and instead of just listening they get all awkward and rude in a way. If I were you I would probably be in jail for beating people up for responding to me the way they respond to you- seriously. Honestly is it really that hard for THEM to listen to you? Are they that put out by it? I’d say it’s way more painful for you than them. I suppose that was less uplifting than it should have been.
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