Tim - thanks for your moving essay. The great neurologist/author Oliver Sachs ('Awakenings', et al) has spoken at some length about Tourette's and it's special limits and frequently accompanying gifts - e.g. tenacity and a certain fearlessness, high intelligence & remarkable musical sensibilities, to name but a few.

The fact that drugs (Haldol) can control the condition seems to be a mixed blessing - the special abilites are often lost along with the less desirable features. I suspect that many with Tourette's simply avoid the drug remedy and live with the downside, as Mr. Cohen seems to have done.

Obviously Brad Cohen is among that number of remarkable people that has transcended his limits in order to excel at something he loves.

Whether one believes in a Creator God or not, there does seem to be something divine in each and every living thing. Whatever that essence may be, adversity seems to bring out the best in many of us, particularly if we have the kind of upbringing and support that nurtures the positive self-image that you speak of here. It seems to me that faith in oneself is where faith begins.

If more of us had the kind of character that your friend Brad seems to possess, it would be a better world indeed.

Thanks again for your typically well-crafted article.

And a great job with the movie. Thoroughly enjoyable!!

Wow! A very powerful and moving story! The movie was wonderful. My Deaf son also accepts his "disability" as a culture and lifestyle rather that a roadblock. At 10 years old he told me, "I'm Deaf, I'm fine. You are hearing, you are fine. You don't want to be Deaf, and I don't want to be hearing, that is all fine. You aren't broken and neither am I. No worries, mom."

You are amazing...you direct, you produce, you lead an organization of thousands, you write, you share the love of God, you are active in everything, you change the world and you have a perpetual and contageous smile. Is there anything you can't do???

Tourette's is undeniable evidence that we cannot always be held responsible for our behavior. The arrogance of those who believe they are always in charge and in control is the rule. This arrogance is revealed by Tourette's. The mind is the last frontier. Shriver's comments may encourage more pioneers.

THE MIRACLE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

The true meaning of Christmas is the most profound concept in the history of the universe. Before the incarnation of the divine being, the Logos, that we call Christmas, there were two divine beings in the heavenlies. One of them was in relation to the other as a human father is to his son, thus the names, God the Father and God the Son. When mankind was ready, the Father sent the Son to leave the unimaginable glories of heaven to be born of a virgin on earth as a real human baby. He was still the same divine being he had always been, however, his capabilities were limited by incarnation to those of a mere human being. He grew up in Israel as a normal boy would have then except that he was totally unselfish.

When he reached maturity, he began his teaching and healing ministry. Trying to convey the fact that he was the God who became a man proved extremely difficult then as now. But central to his message then as now was the concept of a newly defined kind of love, divine love, unselfish love, holy love.

His miracles born of love and his radically different emphasis on the profound principles of living in right relationship with the Father was perceived as a serious threat by the apostate religious leaders of that day (then as now), the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So, ultimately they decided to murder him to erase the unbearable tension between his obvious greatness and their relative pusillanimity. However, his murder on "the old rugged cross," set up by rigged court proceedings, made possible the enormous benefits of the atonement (at-one-ment) for all mankind willing to meet the terms of the divine covenant of salvation (Luke 9:23).

The Son's (Logos') incarnation as Jesus was not temporary but rather eternal. A divine being, a true God, permanently divested himself of his divine level of function and all that goes with it to meet the needs of all mankind for a savior, a completely trustworthy teacher of divine truth and an advocate for us with the Father. That is by far the greatest and most powerful theological or philosophical concept in the universe and constitutes the real miracle meaning of Christmas.

Bio.........I am a former atheist. I have a degree in religion from Baylor University and graduate work in theology from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and also from Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary.