Look at Me. I'm Walking Down the Street

Christopher Reeve is the reason I know I am not psychic. 

When you live in New York you get used to running into celebrities as well as to the idea that they do not make eye contact. So it was really odd when Christopher Reeve, at that time a movie star best known as Superman, not only made eye contact with me, he held it. It was as if we were sharing a secret, as if he were saying, "Look at me. I'm walking down the street." I know that was what I thought because those were the words I used to describe the encounter the next day to a friend who had missed him by a few minutes.

About ten years later, the actor had the horseback-riding accident that left him paralyzed. In the years between the date of his accident and his death in 2004, I never once doubted that he would, against all odds, walk again. 

I have no idea what I thought, but I knew what I believed. I was certain that someday he would walk down Columbus Avenue and marvel at the fact that he was, in fact, walking down the street, that he would look at someone and say, "Look at me. I'm walking down the street."

Sadly, I was wrong.