Ever since Sarah Chorn (Bookworm Blues) asked me to write for her month long blog series Special Needs in Strange Worlds, I've been thinking on the subject in general. (A very good thing, that.) Yesterday after I'd finished writing for the day, I found myself tuning in to the History channel on cable and quilting for a bit. (I'm going to finish that star quilt very soon.) Sewing by hand is very zen. It helps me empty my brain and be quiet inside. A little like kung fu or meditation. Anyway, a program popped on about mysteries within history. They had a segment on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He's one of my favorite presidents to be honest. I think he did amazing things for this country -- things that continued to shore up the foundation of America long after he died, and hopefully (once the jack-asses stop screwing around with bullshit programs that don't work [cough] austerity [cough]) will again. He was an amazing person. He was also mobility impaired. According to history, FDR contracted polio at age 39 and that was what caused his paralysis. I always thought that a little odd. Poliomyelitis is mostly known as a childhood disease. The program last night postulated that FDR actually suffered from Guillain–Barré syndrome. Either way, FDR is a terrific example of someone in history who was disabled and yet, forged on. He hid his disability, by the way. He probably wouldn't have been elected president had he not done so. (Which is awful.) And the public didn't know of the extent of the problem until after he'd passed away. (These days that'd never happen. The press would've leaked it on day one of the election and used it against him.) Anyway, it started me thinking about characters in fiction, and how I might squeeze that into the current project. It's already a major theme in the novel, I just realized. (Nels, the main character, doesn't have magic -- at least not the kind that everyone else in his position has.) All in all, very inspiring. I love when this shit happens.