I’ve been explaining for seven weeks why this month is off-the-charts fun to watch and Hi-Def is just one reason. There’s one November show left, Saturday night at 7:30 on WCNC.

Okay here’s plea #7: Off with their legs!

When we got done shooting this story we hopped in the Carolina Traveler corporate jet and headed back to Charlotte. As our regular flight attendant, Shakira, served us fresh seedless grapes and peppered beef jerky, I turned to Andy and said, “Maybe they should cut off the legs of every teenager in America.”

Morbid? Sure. Kidding? Mostly.

Andy chuckled. He knew exactly what I was saying.

American teens have cars, cell phones, iPods, personal computers, 100 dollar sneakers, the wasteland that is MTV and still they want more and more and more. American teens: The young and the restless… the spoiled and the discontent.

Kos is front and center as always.--

To backtrack, we spent the day in Greenville, SC., with a kid named Kos (pronounced Kose) His given name was Konstantine, 17 years ago when he was born in Siberia, Russia. He changed it to Kostya when he moved to the United States and now everybody calls him Kos.

Here is all you need to know about this kid:
1. At age 6 his mother died in a tragic train accident.
2. At age 9 he was hopping trains (something Russian kids do a lot) when a friend accidentally pushed him onto the tracks and under a train. He lost both legs just below his hips.
3. At age 11, his violent, alcoholic father abandoned him in a Siberian orphanage.
4. At age 15 a non-profit group called Project Hope flew him to Greenville, SC., to fit him with prosthetic legs. Amazingly, his American host family decided to adopt him.
5. At age 17 he took off his prosthetic limbs and on his hands and stumps tried out for the football team at his High School… and he made it.

Yep. He’s playing football with no legs.

Before I saw it with my own eyes, I figured there was a catch. Maybe he’s on the team, but surely he’s on the sideline cheering.

Nope. He plays.

After you sit and talk with him a while, you forget he has no legs. I know that sounds cliché. I’m just saying this kid makes you forget he’s got this insane disability. How many perfectly healthy people do you know do nothing but try and draw your attention to something “difficult” in their lives?

“Oh, my job is so hard. It’s blah, blah, blah.”
“My kids won’t listen to me. Yadda yadda yadda.”
“I feel sick… again… sniff.”
“I have the worst luck!”

They’re all around us. They whine about anything and everything.

And then there’s Kos… who has every legitimate reason to feel sorry for himself. And yet he refuses.

Hey whiner! Kos would love to be in your shoes. Literally.

But he’s not complaining. He’s too busy living. He’s too busy trying to convince people NOT to show him special treatment. Here’s a kid who truly deserves your pity and he doesn’t want it.

And he thinks American teens are selfish and unhappy because they have too much stuff. They whine when they can’t have the latest $150.00 basketball shoes. They whine when they’re iPod is trumped by video iPods. They whine when a snappy new cell phone hits the market. They have everything they desire… and no character on the inside.

I looked at my own life and saw places where I have what I desire, but that deep, inner contentment eludes me.

Kos would tell me it’s about focus. It’s about where I put my energy. Am I trying to get stuff? Or am I trying to be a better person. I know my car and my house and my job will never make me content. But sometimes I forget.

A kid with no legs never forgets.

You can meet the unbreakable Kos Saturday night on Carolina Traveler at 7:30 on WCNC. It’ll be time well spent. Make your kids watch.

He’s only a couple feet tall and the biggest person I’ve ever met.

Peace,

Mike Redding