“As the loudspeakers play the theme song from ‘Chariots of Fire’, Lowe wheels Christopher Reeve onstage. The crowd wildly applauds… “I’vehad to leave the physical world,” Reeve says… “By the time I was twenty-four, I was making millions… I was pretty pleased with myself… I was selfish and neglected my family… Since my accident, I’ve been realising… that success means something quite different… I see people who achieve these conventional goals… None of it matters”.

His words cut through all the snake oil of the last few hours, calmly and with great precision. Everybody in the arena, no matter how greedy or eager for promotion, all eighteen thousand of them, know deep in their hearts that what Reeve has just said is true – too true. Their latest schemes, their plans to market and subdivide and franchise their way up, whatever the cost, the whole spirit now gripping Colorado, vanish in an instant. Men and women up and down the aisles wipe away tears, touched not only by what this famous man has been through but also by a sudden awareness of something hollow about their own lives, something gnawing and unfullfilled.”