As most of you already know, because of my decades-long struggle with Multiple Sclerosis, I am entirely wheelchair dependent. Back in 1990, when I lost the ability to walk, I had to do a lot of emotional and mental calisthenics to reconcile the semi-athletic image I had of myself (ballet, jogging, show jumping, etc.) with my unwelcome new reality. I guess you could say that I learned — the hard way — that when you lose your mobility you lose a lot of other worthwhile things as well.

In 1993, Allure Magazine published an article I wrote about how challenging it was to accept that — because of my wheelchair — people saw and treated me differently than they had before. The article's focus was on the wrestling match my ego was having with the fact that people often seem to either avoid — or look through — me because my illness had made me "physically different."

Eleven years later, the pastor of a local church asked me to write a small book that might be helpful to his parishioners who — like me — were no longer able to walk. By that time, I had been wheelchair dependent for 14 years, and wanted to address issues that went far beyond vanity and the way I looked in the eyes of others. I recently learned that in today's America, 2.2 million people are "confined to a wheelchair," even though using that phrase is considered a politically incorrect statement. I am now profoundly aware that a wheelchair affects - literally — every single aspect of a user's life regardless of age, creed, gender or race.

The reason I'm sharing nuggets of my personal journey with paralysis is that Frank Bruni, an award-winning columnist for The New York Times, addressed this issue last month, and I can't stop thinking about what he wrote. The title of his column was "Are You Old? Infirm? Then Kindly Disappear," and it recounted his experience with Nancy Root, an 82-year-old woman who suffers from post-polio syndrome, and is wheelchair dependent.

Bruni met Root last September while on a Baltic cruise. Unlike most individuals who have lost the ability to walk, Nancy is comfortable enough financially to pay for several helpers who make it possible for her to travel whenever she chooses to, and enjoy the better things in life. Most people — like me — who are "physically challenged" find themselves squeezed between being unable to earn a decent living yet simultaneously needing to pay others who are willing and able to provide essential assistance.

Getting to know Nancy was a genuinely eye-opening experience for Bruni, and he wants all Americans to understand that aging and illness will ensure that more and more people will be dependent on canes, crutches, walkers and wheelchairs in the coming decades. Right now, there are about 50 million Americans who are 65 and older, but by 2060 there will be close to 98 million — which will represent close to 25 percent of our country's population.

I urge you to set aside five minutes, and read Bruni's thought-provoking column. Right now, you might be lucky enough to be "temporarily able bodied," but the odds are that one of these days — in the not-so-distant future — you might face physical challenges of your own.

Marilyn Murray Willison has had a varied career as a six-time nonfiction author, columnist, motivational speaker and journalist in both the U.K. and the U.S. She is the author of The Self-Empowered Woman blog and the award-winning memoir "One Woman, Four Decades, Eight Wishes." She can be reached at www.marilynwillison.com. To find out more about Marilyn and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.