30 Days

30 Days is a show produced by Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame. The premise is that people will engage in something foreign to them for 30 days. The first episode of each season is Spurlock himself. This year he worked in a coal mine. Other episodes in the past have included going to prison, an guy who is always raging taking on new age ideals, etc. It’s a great show. I was a apprehensive when I heard that this season would include an ex-professional football player, Ray Crockett, living in a wheelchair for 30 days. My complaints where that he still wouldn’t know. It’s impossible to know unless you can’t move your legs at all. I was set to hate the episode and was surprised at how well it turned out. He was given a proper lightweight chair and he was to not move his legs at all, except once a day for stretching as to not do any damage or cause blood clots. He went home and found that even his large estate was inaccessible. The doorways were too small. His wife had to drive him around until week 2 when he got a car with hand-controls.

The episode was less about him, though, than it was about the people he met and spoke with. One was a woman who was in an accident and became a quadriplegic. She was in the hospital getting rehab and he went to visit her a few times to check her progress. He commented early on in one of his interviews that he just didn’t think he’d be able to do it if he were in her place. These kinds of comments have always made me mad. I assume people think that they’re giving you props for handling what life throws you, but it’s basically saying, you’re so bad off, I’d rather be dead. I know that seems like too harsh a statement to put into people’s mouths, except that I’ve heard someone say that when I went past. A man said, “I’d kill myself if I lost the use of my legs.” I kind of wanted to help him.

Anyway, Ray Crockett went to a group meeting for people who had just had injuries and became friends with one of the volunteers. He was a very cute guy who had swung on rope swing into a lake when he was 18. Only it was only 8 inches of water and he ended up in an electric wheelchair for the last 17 years. Ray had his house completely retrofitted with ramps and everything he would need. When he went to cute guy’s house he saw that it isn’t always so easy. His house was tiny and barely accessible. Retrofitting costs money. Ray also played with the Texas Stampede, the wheelchair rugby team featured in Murderball. His conversations with these people is what made the show good. By the end he was able to say that he never wanted to have to, but he knew he could do it because what other choice do you have. While my initial reaction was to assume he’d never understand because he wouldn’t really know, I was happy with how they did the episode and showed, I don’t know, that we’re regular people who had bad shit happen to them.

The show was emotional to watch. It’s hard to think your life is normal and then to see how not normal it is. To see how most people have no idea how hard it is. Most of all, it’s hard to be reminded that you will not be able to stand up in 30 Days and shake it off.