"My Left Foot"

While trapped in my apartment with a stomach bug last weekend, I watched quite a few movies.  One of them was really interesting.  It's an older movie called, "My Left Foot".  The movie is a true story about the life of Christy Brown (suprisingly, this is a man), who had Cerebral Palsy.  This man was born in the 30's and grew up in a poor, Irish Catholic family somewhere in Ireland.  He was one of about 20 kids.  The movie showed all of the obstacles he and his family had to overcome caring for him in those conditions.  Amazingly, this guy went on to become a famous artist, creating paintings using only his left foot (since that is the only limb he could control).  He ended up selling many of his painting around the world.  He also wrote a book, typing the whole thing on a typewriter also using only his left foot.  In his book he talks about what it was like growing up with his conditon, always being talked down to like he was dumb, even though he could understand everything everyone was telling him, he just couldn't communicate back to them or control his movements the way everyone else could to him.  He said it was like being trapped, his own body was his prison.  I have not read the book yet, but am definitely planning to order it.  The movie was so inspiring.  Daniel Day Lewis played the role of Christy Brown and did an AMAZING job portraying someone with Cerebral Palsy.  I recommend the movie to all of you.  I will let you know how the book is once I read it!

Here is a picture of the real Christy Brown: