JESSICA Cox
Our televiewing month got off to an unexpectedly great start on May 2, when we caught a telecast of “Savoring Our Faith” on EWTN.
We were looking for unusual TV shows to write about, and the show certainly qualified to be in that category, because it was a religious program that was also about cooking!
That’s right, the production was hosted by a priest who used cooking demos as “teaching” tools to impart spiritual values, life lessons, etc.
What a great program concept! It sure beats the dry lectures, sermons and abstract panel discussions that sometimes pass for religious programs on TV these days.
Even better, we were delighted to learn that the priest hosting the show was a Filipino-American, Leo Patalinghug.
He obviously loved cooking, and his great sense of humor made his insightful ad libs all the more diverting—and easy on the ear, mind and heart.
Best of all, Fr. Leo’s featured guests for the day were Jessica Cox and her husband, Patrick Chamberlain. We were bowled over to discover this, because Jessica is one of our personal heroes.
She’s the famous Fil-Am who has no arms, and yet has chalked up a dizzying list of achievements that have enabled her to end up in the record books:
She’s the only armless person who’s been given a license to fly a plane, is a martial arts champion, runs her own motivational services company, is a book author, and has been the subject of an award-winning documentary.
We knew all this before we watched Fr. Leo’s program, so we enjoyed viewing it even more, because it showed her in a bracingly new light—as a foodie who even helped the chef-priest prepare the ingredients for his cooking demo!
That’s right, she used her foot to hold a spoon to stir some tomato sauce for the pizzas he was whipping up, even as she and her husband shared choice details about their life together. What a treat!
About Fr. Leo, we’ve learned that he’s the founder of Grace Before Meals, “an international apostolate to help strengthen families and relationships through God’s gift of a family meal.”
More on Jessica: Aside from being the world’s first licensed armless pilot, she’s the first armless black-belter in the American Taekwondo Association.
She was born without arms due to a birth defect. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, and is also known for “armless surfing and
scuba!”
She has a Guinness World Record for being “the only pilot to fly with his or her feet.”
In addition, she has a US Inspiration Award for Women, in the “Most Aspirational” category, given to her in 2012.
Personally, we look up to Jessica Cox as our hero because she’s both symbol and actual proof of the indomitability of the human spirit—for which the “impossible” is only a matter of heart!