Sitting at my favourite coffee shop in the mall, watching the people going by. There is the biggest assortment of people you could wish to see here - from smartly dressed older women (the pearl set) all the way down to the baggy-bottomed tracksuit pants and even some barefoot! If you ever want to see the diversity of the human form, this is the place to see it. There seem to be an inordinately large number of people with disabilities, or maybe it is because this mall is disabled-friendly and they can get about easily. Whatever it may be, there is plenty of opportunity to reflect on how fortunate we are to have all our faculties, health and basic human body.
Why should we be grateful? Because we have taught ourselves to believe that those who don't look or think the way we do are not as good as us, that ours is the way to be. But perhaps we should look at it from a different perspective. Perhaps those who are 'different' are not aware of their difference until it is pointed out to them or when they are looked upon as being 'less able'. One can certainly understand why offers of assistance are generally rejected, as the disabled try to show us that they are not any less able or useful than the rest of us.
I believe that those who are born 'different' are here to show us how to be humble, how to accept others for who and what they are, how to be grateful that we are able to make our way through life without ridicule or avoidance by those who do not know how to deal with someone who is different. In many cases, those with a disability are an example to the able-bodied of what can be achieved, and perhaps they develop other aspects of themselves far beyond the limits we set for ourselves.
Let us all be determined to accept the unity of the human race, demonstrated in diversity, with the knowledge that we all come from the same place and will all go back there one day.
No comments:
Post a Comment