Stevie Wonder lost his eyesight as an infant. Born six weeks premature, he received oxygen therapy, which had the then-unknown side effect of causing blindness in premature babies. Despite what many might consider a tragic accident, Wonder "never thought of being blind as a disadvantage." In 2012, he told the Guardian, "I love me! And I don't mean that egotistically –- I love that God has allowed me to take whatever it was that I had and to make something out of it."
Throughout his life Wonder has greeted the world with fearless enthusiasm. As a kid he got into fights over girls and once leaped off the roof of a shed in his backyard. As an adult he went to movies, went bowling, and even navigated airports by himself. According to one of his assistants, people on airplanes thought Wonder was "a junkie 'cause he sits there with these glasses on, and his head goes back and forth, side to side when he feels good."
Some of Wonder's feats have been surreal. In 1973, he told Rolling Stone, "I've flown a plane before. A Cessna or something, from Chicago to New York. Scared the hell out of everybody." During a trip to Ghana, he not only steered but landed a 10-seater plane simply by following instructions given by the pilot. "The sensitivity of his hands was unbelievable," the pilot recalled. Stevie's a Wonder, all right.
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