Introduction

Ed Greene (Host): We now like to present a couple of our 2013 Honor Awards. First, Kevin Sorbo has been chosen as the recipient of the 2013 Inspiration Honors Award. Based upon his inspiration as a three-time stroke survivor, Kevin’s journey with illness chronicled in his book True Strength provides amazing insight and vulnerability into personally living each day with illness, both in times of tragedy and of triumph.

Kevin Sorbo’s Acceptance Speech

Hello there, Kevin Sorbo here. Sorry I couldn’t be there with you all this evening. I’m on the set of a sci-fi movie I’m shooting in Utah. But I wanted to thank the Invisible Disabilities Association for honoring me this evening with the Inspiration Award. And I’m pretty sure that I was chosen for this award because of my book, True Strength, which brought to light how frail someone can be on the inside, even when outwardly people think that he is the strongest man in the world.

The Illusion of Strength and Facing Frailty

We are all frail, some of us just a little bit more than others. When I was shooting my TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys—which, by the way, you can still see on Netflix, I thought I’d just throw that in there—I suffered three strokes and I was left with a 10% loss of vision in both eyes and huge balance issues.

The “Hercules” Fallacy and Recovery

It took me three and a half months to learn how to balance myself again. But even after that amount of time, the doctors decided to give me a clean bill of health and send me back to work. While I went back to work on the set and, as much as I tried to keep composed, I ended up collapsing on the set and was rushed to the hospital for a second time.

So with all the information the doctors had with the MRI and all the therapy that I had to go through, my brain still couldn’t handle it. And I was rushed back to the hospital, as I said, for the second time. And I asked the doctor that sent me back why he did. And with a shrug of the shoulders, he said, “Well, you’re Hercules.”

It turns out he was wrong. See, none of us are Hercules, although I was lucky enough to play a character like that on TV. Going back to work after my strokes was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. And you can only fake it for so long. And those of you who are here supporting this organization and have gone through similar experiences, I know what I’m talking about.

Breaking the Stigma: Writing “True Strength”

It took me several years to muster the courage to write my book, True Strength, because of the stigma that’s attached to the frailty of having such an illness or disability. So I wrote it with the pushing of my wife to shed some light and encourage others to be more understanding of people’s shortcomings, and to hopefully inspire and motivate people to push past the limitations that are being set on us—not only by friends and family and doctors, but ourselves as well, because I know we put limitations on ourselves. And I just wanted to write my book to get people to push past those limitations.

Acknowledgments and Final Words

Your organization, the Invisible Disabilities Association, is dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding, and I congratulate you for your work. And I humbly, humbly accept this award and, well, like I said, I wish I could be there. Have a wonderful evening, and God bless.