He catches his left shoulder and loses every so often. It hurts as he drives, sits still, rises from his bed, and misses in a humid meadow. It’s more than pain. It seems to be some form of pain, though he never mentions it. There are moments where he can’t help but demonstrate that, the loss of a car accident four years ago when he flipped and rolled the car he was driving, causing Freeman and a friend to be dragged out of the car using the Jaws of Life. He was born with a useless left hand, following surgery to repair nerve damage.A surgical glove stiffly grips it most of the time to make sure blood doesn’t collect there. It’s a lock, the agony, a relatively useless limb shot up by an icy. He doesn’t like showing it, but sometimes he can’t help but lose himself to a grimace that ends in the world. It’s such a big gesture, so beyond the man’s general demeanor, it seems like he’s acting.
“If asked, it’s the fibromyalgia,” he says. “The leg goes up and down. That’s where it’s getting so bad. It means that Morgan Freeman is unable to fly jets the way he used to, a hobby he took up at 65. He can’t sail anymore. There was a time when he was going to go to the Caribbean on his own and hide out at once for two, three months. “The loneliness was complete,” he says. “Being peace, how I find time to read was the best way for me.” No more. He can’t trust one arm for himself. He can’t drive anyway, not a stick, not the way he used to drive — that is, easy, wide open, committed to what the car can do. So he can’t ride the same amount of horses, though he rode every day once.
He never addresses any of it as a loss, though how else could it be? He never talks about it’s unfairness. “There’s a reason for such improvements. I need to move on to other issues, to other self-conceptions. I’m golfing. I’m just here. And just walking the ground, I can be quite content. “Wait. How can he play golf like this with a clipped wing? When you can’t lift one of your legs, how can you swing a club?
“I’m playing one-handed,” he tells me. “I’m running with my right arm.”
“Look at yourself,” he says. “I’m playing today at 3:00.”
Freeman’s discovery that the FM culture has spread fibromyalgia like wildfire. Eventually, a celebrity from the A-list admitted that he was diagnosed with FM. A couple of other actors have had the courage to talk about their FM, for which we are extremely grateful, but none have yet had Morgan Freeman’s super-star power.
FM patients and supporters began calling on Freeman almost immediately to deal about fibromyalgia on behalf of others. It has even been speculated that their representative has been approached by a large national FM agency. While most of the FM community seems to strongly support this idea, some have challenged Freeman’s judgment as an FM spokesperson.
Those who question about Freeman representing the FM family seem to have three questions from what I have read: Does he really have fibromyalgia since he only reported pain in his left arm and shoulder?
He is still very active and would therefore give an inaccurate picture of how FM can be weakened.
Because most people with FM are women, he wouldn’t portray most patients as a person.
Let’s look at each of these issues more closely.
We must also note that this conversation was not meant to discuss the fibromyalgia of Freeman. The writer merely observed several times Freeman grimacing and asked him about it. It is understandable that at the time Freeman should consider only the suffering he felt. Or maybe he went into more detail, but Chiarella decided to include only what he thought was most important while writing the post.
And is it a legitimate issue whether Freeman has fibromyalgia or not? Absolutely. If we’re talking about someone being a disease spokesperson, it’s appropriate to want to make sure they have the disease. We shouldn’t just leap to certain conclusions based on a single statement.
Finally Morgan Freeman opens his Struggle about Fibromyalgia war
His level of activity does not draw a specific FM picture.–People with FM drop into a wide range of working skills. As Freeman continues to work and play golf, he appears to be fairly high-functioning. Nonetheless, the article noted that he had to give up some things he enjoyed. Many individuals with FM, on the other hand, are completely disabled, unable to perform even basic tasks of self-care.The rest of us fell in the middle somewhere. While Freeman’s level of operation would not preclude him from portraying people with FM, I would hope that part of his message will be to clarify how debilitating FM can be and demonstrate how different patients have different rates of disability.
He’s not portraying the average FM patient as a man.–Frankly, I think it’s a positive thing that he’s a person with FM. Whether we like it or not, people still have more legitimacy than women when it comes to health issues. Research have shown that practitioners in health care are more likely to take the symptoms of a man seriously, but attribute the symptoms of a woman to psychological causes.Although in recent years FM’s acceptance has come a long way, there are still some people, including some medical professionals, who don’t think it’s possible. Getting a well-known and highly respected person like Morgan Freeman speaking about FM can help our doubters to boost their credibility.
Despite of repeated desires to step up and be a fibromyalgia spokesperson, I still wonder if Freeman’s wishes had never been mentioned. He certainly never thought of thinking that one word would ever draw so much attention in the middle of a multi-hour interview.
Despite our excitement for making a famous celebrity like Morgan Freeman speak out on our behalf, I think we need to bear in mind how that might affect his life. Celebrities have done all they could to keep their health issues hidden years ago since exposing a disease could destroy their careers. While Hollywood seems to be welcoming a little more these days, I think that there is still some apprehension in hiring an actor with a known health problem. And even though his job isn’t a major concern, Freeman strikes me as the kind of man who prefers not to concentrate on his struggles and what he can’t do but to move forward and focus on what he can do.
Sure, when Morgan Freeman wants to become a fibromyalgia supporter, it would be fantastic. He would be welcomed with open arms by the entire FM family. His help might do wonders to raise awareness and raise money for research. Yet ultimately it’s a personal decision–at any given point in time, each of us should decide what’s best for our lives. Although I hope he will use his fame to support others with FM, either way I will respect his decision.