"Christina's" burden

Without getting too smarmy about it, sometimes I think everyone's life may boil down to the evocative depiction of "Christina's World," a painting by Andrew Wyeth....

Struggle and sweat and laugh and cry and in the end there is always the house at the top of the hill and the keen awareness of the crippling barriers between here and there. With what arms and legs can I make this journey? I don't know and have to admit I may never get where I insist on wanting to go... and yet what other choice is there?

Oh, if polio were the only wall!