I was surprised, watching a television news story this week on Sen. Andrew Maynard's surprise appearance at the General Assembly, where he was sworn in for a new term, when the reporter then stuck a microphone in the face of the new Senate president pro tempore.

At the end of her story on Maynard, who until this week had not been seen in public since his hospitalization for a serious fall at his home, the reporter pressed Senate President Martin Looney for more details on Maynard's condition.

"But is he fit to serve?" the reporter insistently asked the president on camera, long after showing footage of a smiling Maynard raising his hand for the oath.

I would never criticize a reporter for asking a tough question. Good for her.

And I understand the worry some have about how effective a still-recovering Maynard can be in the Senate.

"But how well will I be represented?" I heard one of his constituents complain after seeing him sworn in.

Yet the continuing whispers and hand wringing about Maynard's condition really should stop.

First of all, he was overwhelmingly re-elected in November, and voters understood full well the tenuousness of his medical condition. No one hid the fact that he was unable to campaign or even appear in public at that time.

Voters in his district, it seems to me, accepted the assertions of his family, who were not terribly forthcoming with details about his medical condition, that he was improving and they had reason to believe he would be able to serve.

And then, this week, we all got to watch what you might call his triumphant return to the Senate chamber. The applause for him seemed especially heartfelt. And really, how hard-hearted would you have to be to not smile, seeing Maynard smiling and waving to old friends, back, it seemed, from the brink.

The television reporter asked: Is he fit to serve?

The short answer is that he is serving, presumably as best he can. He was elected, which makes him, well, fit to serve. And he showed up and took the oath, beginning his term.

Elected leaders in Hartford and elsewhere have all kinds of problems or handicaps that might compromise their public service. I might venture to suggest some are even plain stupid and, by that definition, not quite fit at all.

And yet we have elections to sort it out and to let voters decide who they want to conduct their business, who they think is fit. In Connecticut's 18th District, voters chose Maynard.

The senator is now struggling with a physical disability, one it appears he is on track to overcome. From what we know, his recovery from a serious brain injury seems to be proceeding quickly, and we can all hope that continues.

Meanwhile, there are probably some tasks he won't be able to carry out well, especially given his ongoing therapy to improve his speech.

But we are a society that invites all to participate, disabled or not. And we celebrate those who work hard to overcome adversity.

I thought Sen. Maynard's surprise appearance this week in the General Assembly made for perhaps one of the most heartening and inspiring openings of a new legislative session that I've seen.

He's my state senator and I would say, now more than ever, he's as fit to serve as a lot of his colleagues.

Here's to his continuing recovery and to all those voters who elected to give him the chance to try.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct