EDITORIAL: 'I'm going to beat the adversity'

When Clay Dyer vacationed recently in Destin, he dispensed the kind of advice you would expect from someone who’s not only a professional fisherman but also a motivational speaker with a traveling ministry.
“When someone tells me, ‘You can’t do this,’ I’m going to find a way to get that done and beat the adversity,” he said.
Routine, pick-yourself-up stuff. Except that Mr. Dyer was born with no legs, no left arm and a partial right arm. Adversity, indeed.
Only he doesn’t see it that way. As we reported Saturday, Clay Dyer started fishing when he was a child and began competing in tournaments when he was 15. Two years later, he was a pro angler. Now he travels each year from his home in Alabama to freshwater fishing competitions in Central Florida.
His motto: “If I can, you can.”
The Dyer story should be an inspiration to anyone facing personal challenges, whether extraordinary (as his are) or utterly ordinary. At some time or other, we all think we have too little time or talent to do the things we want to do. But if he can, anybody can.