I am grown up, grown up from the one who asked “why God created these people?” to the one who is curious to know “when will God show the divineness hidden in these people?” - never in a position to drop God from the context and now that attempt fails faster than ever before.
Religious places are where we first meet these people, at least in India, as they occupy the entrance, praying God that we would be merciful to them. I wasn’t. I always wanted them to go away, faraway, to the heaven or hell. Regardless of whether it was physical or mental disability, I never felt that they got any meaning in life.
When I first heard the Beethoven story - composing his masterpiece when he was completely deaf or John Milton’s Paradise Lost which he wrote when he was almost blind, I was dismissive of it rather than feeling inspired. I was arguing that we would be okay without them. After all, this world has got millions of great works buried in it which we will never get to know.
There were times when I tried my best to ignore the blind people when I saw them on the streets. At least, I would move to the other side of the road. But later, I kept watching them walk with walking sticks. I imagine trying the same and I feel I would fail miserably. Practice may help but I started to believe that there would be something more than mere practice - some gift from God, if you can understand! Of late, when I see a blind person, I feel, holding his hand and crossing the road is something I must do - not a help but the expression of my respect for his contribution in this world.
How can I ignore her when she shouts “I am different, not less.”? And she adds “The word ‘autism’ still conveys a fixed and dreadful meaning to most people—they visualise a child mute, rocking, screaming, inaccessible, cut off from human contact. And we almost always speak of autistic children, never of autistic adults, as if such children never grew up, or were somehow mysteriously spirited off the planet, out of society.”. That was exactly the thought in my mind. It felt as if the message is meant only to me. I read these after watching Temple Grandin. The words are very intense and the only action possible for me is to kill my original thought. I did that spontaneously as I left with no time for rational thinking. Temple Grandin is yet another lesson, an awakening.
The more and more I see people who are labelled as not regular and their achievements, I feel inferior and fearing that the regulars are destined to be average. The regulars come into this world and leave with no mark of their life. Are adversities mandatory for success? Are the physical and mental disturbances essential part of a purpose driven life?
Religious places are where we first meet these people, at least in India, as they occupy the entrance, praying God that we would be merciful to them. I wasn’t. I always wanted them to go away, faraway, to the heaven or hell. Regardless of whether it was physical or mental disability, I never felt that they got any meaning in life.
When I first heard the Beethoven story - composing his masterpiece when he was completely deaf or John Milton’s Paradise Lost which he wrote when he was almost blind, I was dismissive of it rather than feeling inspired. I was arguing that we would be okay without them. After all, this world has got millions of great works buried in it which we will never get to know.
There were times when I tried my best to ignore the blind people when I saw them on the streets. At least, I would move to the other side of the road. But later, I kept watching them walk with walking sticks. I imagine trying the same and I feel I would fail miserably. Practice may help but I started to believe that there would be something more than mere practice - some gift from God, if you can understand! Of late, when I see a blind person, I feel, holding his hand and crossing the road is something I must do - not a help but the expression of my respect for his contribution in this world.
How can I ignore her when she shouts “I am different, not less.”? And she adds “The word ‘autism’ still conveys a fixed and dreadful meaning to most people—they visualise a child mute, rocking, screaming, inaccessible, cut off from human contact. And we almost always speak of autistic children, never of autistic adults, as if such children never grew up, or were somehow mysteriously spirited off the planet, out of society.”. That was exactly the thought in my mind. It felt as if the message is meant only to me. I read these after watching Temple Grandin. The words are very intense and the only action possible for me is to kill my original thought. I did that spontaneously as I left with no time for rational thinking. Temple Grandin is yet another lesson, an awakening.
The more and more I see people who are labelled as not regular and their achievements, I feel inferior and fearing that the regulars are destined to be average. The regulars come into this world and leave with no mark of their life. Are adversities mandatory for success? Are the physical and mental disturbances essential part of a purpose driven life?
Comments